Do the students in your classroom have any assigned jobs during the week – maybe holding the door, turning off the light, ensuring the library books are put away neatly, or helping sharpen pencils? Or maybe students sometimes help you deliver a message to another classmate or a neighboring teacher. Young children often take these tasks seriously; they are excited to help. It’s a big deal to be the helper or the messenger!

In our Bible reading for today, we hear Jesus assigning some important jobs. He tells us that there are many in the world who need to know about God’s love for them – “the harvest is plentiful” – but the people to proclaim or share that message – “the workers” – are few. In some cases, God, through his church, calls people into full-time ministry, like your pastor, who focuses on proclaiming the gospel as his job. We want to pray for and support these people in the work they do to share Jesus, and we also want to pray for God – “the Lord of the harvest” – to provide more people to fill these roles.

God also uses each of us, his children, to show and share his love with those around us. Before we can share this gospel message with others, though, we first need to know and recognize that God’s message of forgiveness and peace is for us. We, too, are in need of Jesus because of our sin – those thoughts, words, and actions, that separate us from God and the way he tells us to live. It is only through God’s work in and for us that our sins are forgiven and that we can live in joy and contentment knowing we have a heavenly home to look forward to.

Then, we go and proclaim God’s Word to those in our “harvest field” – our families, our neighbors, our students. In the classroom, that may look like reminding your students Jesus loves them, praying with your students when they are thankful, upset, or afraid, modeling how to forgive someone who hurts us, or singing songs of praise for what God has done. It happens in big ways as we teach Bible lessons and worship in chapel services, but it also happens in small moments with individual students as we marvel at God’s creation at recess or answer one of the many questions children ask about God and what he is like.

And as we live out and proclaim God’s love to our families, students, and communities, we don’t do it alone. God promises to always be with us, to strengthen and equip us for this job he has given us.

Young children cannot keep quiet about the awesome things they hear and see; they want to tell someone! Let’s be like that. Let’s pray for God to use us, to use his pastors, and to use our students as they go out into their communities to share God’s incredible love and amazing grace for us in Jesus. There’s work to do, and it’s a big deal!