In reading the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, I noticed something I had not seen before.

If you don’t know the story, Jesus’ disciples had left Him at the well to go into the city to get food. When they returned, they were surprised to find Him talking with a woman (John 4:27). The Bible says she left and went to the people of her city to tell them of Jesus. Intrigued, they all headed to the well to see Him for themselves.

In the meantime, the disciples offered the food they had brought to Jesus, but He refused it. Previously, He had been hungry and weary from His journey, but now He seemed to be preoccupied with something else. What was it?

As the disciples pondered why He wouldn’t eat, Jesus looked toward the city and saw the people approaching who had been told of Him by the woman at the well. Looking at them, He said to His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work… Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest” (John 4:34-35).

Jesus could see the people coming and suddenly they became His priority.

I think the lesson for us is evident: When you go to the mall, look at the people. When you go to the grocery store, notice those around you. Instead of being preoccupied with our own thing, let us not forget to see the harvest around us.

I’ll admit, it’s easy to get caught up in our own world and forget Jesus came to find and help people. So as believers, let us not fail to remember we were once one of those people Jesus found (and saved, and delivered, and set free from the bondage that once held us).

A ministry friend of our family has a sweet testimony of salvation. He wasn’t raised in a great home and didn’t know anything about Jesus or salvation. But on two different occasions, someone approached him when he was a young man and simply said, “Jesus changed my life and He can change yours.”

That’s it. They didn’t say anything else.

He said after the first one, he thought, “That was weird.” But when the second person said the exact same thing, it got his attention and opened his heart. He says he wishes he could talk to either of those people today because he imagines they were nervous to approach him but stepped out in faith anyway and have no idea how God used it to bring him to Christ. He and his wife now oversee countless Bible Schools across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

All because someone saw him and said something.

It doesn’t have to be hard.

I have to remind myself that sharing Jesus doesn’t have to be hard or scary. The Bible says some of us plant (seeds), some water, but ultimately God brings the increase (the harvest).

I don’t know what this is going to look like in every situation, but I do believe Jesus wants us to see the harvest. The fields are white and ready so let’s determine today to look around and say something.