“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” // Luke 10:2
All my cousin wanted was a pumpkin pie, and there I was, three days before Christmas, frantically running the grocery store aisles with no pumpkin to be found. The Kroger employee could see the distress all over my face.
“What you need, baby?” Her southern drawl floating down the aisle.
“Pumpkin,” I sheepishly replied. Who needs pumpkin for Christmas . . . ?
“Oh, right over here,” she ushered me over to a stack of blue plastic bins blocking an entire three shelves of Libby’s cans of pumpkin.
I grabbed a half dozen cans and turned to thank her for her help when she said, “You forgot to make the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and now someone wants one, huh? Good for you for making it happen.”
We both laughed as I nodded, and it occurred to me that even in my frustration and anxiousness, I was doing something good, maybe even holy, by making this out-of-season pumpkin pie for our Christmas feast. I was serving a family member. I was entering into a moment to harvest kindness and love for my family.
By striving to be generous, and not just count the cost of my time, but instead consider the joy it would bring others, I could maybe answer God’s invitation to labor for Him, and those He and I both love.
Today we celebrate a Saint who shows us how to do that every day.
Saint Nicholas, a fierce defender of Christ’s divinity and a generous servant to God’s own people, went out of his way to generously give of his riches and wielded his powerful influence to defend and protect the hurt and hurting. He did so, not because it was necessarily popular or convenient, but because it was the labor the Lord needed most, and what Nicholas knew he was called to do.
At a time of the year when there is so much to be done, would that we all give generously like Saint Nicholas and labor out of love in the abundant harvests the Lord places before us and where He needs us most. Where is He calling you to harvest?
* readings for Memorial of Saint Nicholas
Answer God’s invitation to labor for Him. // @KatiePMcGrady Click to tweet
Katie Prejean McGrady is an international speaker and award winning four books. She hosts The Katie McGrady Show on Sirius XM's The Catholic Channel and the Ave Explores podcast with Ave Maria Press, the Like a Mother podcast with OSV, and Family Mass Prep on the Hallow App. She tries to create a happy and cozy home in Lake Charles, Louisiana with her husband, Tommy, and daughters, Rose and Clare.
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