William Shakespeare wrote of the seven ages of man. To him they were infant, whining schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, and old man. Others have divided the ages of man or woman into seven-year increments. They are 0-7 childhood, 7 to 14 puberty, 14 to 21 adulthood, 21 to 28, 28 to 35 and so on. Like Shakespeare, you get the idea. The seventh age of man this way is 49 to 56 (7x7) and it is conceded to be the spiritual age of man. From 56-on you are old and on the return journey toward second childhood and death.
I’m now in the ninth age of man and looking forward to the 10th, 11th, 12th, and beyond. Still, I’m at the age now where I’ve noticed people around me dying: people I grew up with, went to school with, watched on TV or in the movies, and authors of books I grew up reading.
We fear death and we shouldn’t for as we pass through the ages of man we grow in life, gain wisdom, understanding, sympathy for others, and love. Love for life. Love of life. Love for all.
When it is our time or the time of our loved ones to join Jesus and God in heaven, we should rejoice for it is the Lord’s harvest. He created this garden, planted us, nurtured us, guarded and watched us grow, and finally harvest’s us to join and be with him in heaven for eternity.
Matt 9: 38
“Pay ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
We are the harvest! We are God’s reward for His labor with His Son in this garden. We attempt here on Earth to be perfect and Christ like to become bountiful fruit when we are called, picked, and harvested to His joy.
Leave not a moment before you are summoned to the harvest. Regardless of the circumstances, the fruit never harvests or attempts to harvest itself. Also, no one ever has the right to kill the fruit of his harvest or stop and prevent what he has ordained to plant for growth and the future. Even in the end times, whenever he ordains the final times, we are his to harvest regardless of the circumstances of pain, travail, and suffering we are undergoing for it is his to ordain and his to harvest.
Rev 14: 15
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
So be joyful when you are finally called to join Him and His Son. He has deemed you ripe for the harvest, and whether we agree or not, he is our loving, caring, gardener and our God.
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