Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. (Psalm 126:5)

As I read this verse the other day, I began to think about its meaning.

Sowing and reaping is a system. Just like any system, there are rules. What one sows, he or she will also reap. If you sow a good seed you will one day reap from that seed. Likewise, if you sow a bad seed, that too you will also reap. Sounds simple enough, right?

What about when the harvest isn’t immediate? What about when it takes years, lifetimes, generations? The thing about God is He can see the bigger picture. Believe it or not, I am still reaping from the prayers my grandmother prayed, and perhaps you are too. My grandmother was a faithful, Godly woman. My grandfather passed away when my mom was only 12 years old, leaving my grandmother behind to raise six children. For the rest of her life, she never took off her wedding band, and she never remarried. I like to think that God became her husband. She walked to mass every single morning until she physically couldn’t anymore. It’s hard for me to fathom that level of faithfulness. Maybe, just maybe, her granddaughter, whom she loved so dearly, is reaping from what she had been sowing all those years.

So keep praying, keep giving, keep reading, keep writing, keep sowing the good seed, and one day your spirit will reap. The harvest may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not even be in our own lifetimes, but in faith, I will keep sowing, and I hope you do too. Those tears you shed while waiting for the harvest, God is collecting. (Psalm 56:8)