Perfect Pumpkins

Ever feel like a pumpkin? I mean, for real? I do!

Growing up, my family never "celebrated" Halloween, so I am new to all of this pumpkin carving, costume wearing, candy eating extravagance.

So here it how it is going down: First, we went through three different costume attempts before we found one that Gideon would wear. Dude, seriously, you are not even TWO yet!!! How can you have such clothing preferences?? I love it though - he is his own man already.

Then, we had to find the perfect pumpkin. We currently have 3, and I am told that we still need another! We have one teeny, tiny one that is simply for decoration (I think it is more of a gourd actually, but who am I to judge??). We have one medium size one that I got for Gideon to actually decorate himself. And then we have a big one that Babe is supposed to carve. We bought special carving tools - again, I am new to all of this, so it's not like I have this stuff just lying around! We bought Sesame Street templates, so that our carved pumpkin can be Elmo, Ernie, Cookie, or Oscar...

And now Babe tells me that the shape is wrong for the templates. It would seem that I bought us a very round and fat one, and what we in fact need is a taller and skinnier one. Shocking, I know...taller and thinner...hhhmmmmph.

So now, we take this PERFECT pumpkin, and what do we do? We cut it open and scoop its guts out. We carve everything out of it and then rinse it in a solution to keep it from rotting. We carve a mask onto the front of it and then put the top back on. Our 'perfect' pumpkin wasn't so perfect as it turns out.

Let's look at this a bit more closely - because I personally feel like I can feel this poor pumpkin's pain.

All a pumpkin knows is to grow on its vine. And then one day a (hopefully) nice family comes along and chooses it. Compares it to all the other pumpkins and falls in love with it and takes it home. The pumpkin must feel so elated! So thrilled! Now, life will begin! But, what's this??? A knife?? The people that professed to love it the most cut it. TO THE CORE. In fact, not only do they cut it open, they scoop everything out, leaving the pumpkin empty and hollow.

Ouch.

Didn't see that one coming...

But there's more. Now they rinse the bruised flesh with a solution that will keep it from rotting. It burns. It smells. It isn't pleasant. Will this torture ever end?

Then comes the transformation. Delicate knives and picks begin to slowly chip away at the surface of the pumpkin, methodically changing it's very being into something else. The pumpkin is gone, replaced with  Elmo, or a crooked grin, or a flag, or a message. Finally, a candle is placed inside the hollowed-out, sanitized, reconstructioned pumpkin. The top is placed back on and as the suns sets and darkness sets in, the light burns brightly through the transformed pumpkin. Lighting a dark walkway. Bringing joy to children. Summoning a new season. Finally, the transformation is complete. Gone is the pumpkin. But, better yet, in its place, a beautiful, glowing jack-o-lantern.

Don't we all start out 'perfect' and incomplete? Aren't we all chosen? Don't we all get caught unawares at some point and have the lid of our 'perfect' lives blown off? Haven't we all been hollowed out and left empty? Haven't we all come dangerously close to letting rotten things penetrate our very souls and beings? Haven't we all worn a mask at some point?

But - and this is ALL on us - BUT don't we all have a light flickering inside us? Wanting to bust through - TO SHINE out as a beacon of joy and hope? To help guide others on their journey in the darkness?

God has chosen all of us. He has made us all in His image. He allows us to be transformed. To go through the process. Because what is the alternative? To wither and rot in the field?

Tonight, as I look at our plethora of pumpkins, I am encouraged that God loved me enough to scoop out everything in me that is rotten, rinse and cleanse me, carve a beautiful image upon me, and set a light inside me that will never burn out.

Isaiah 48:10-11a
(AMP)

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried and chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it [I refrain and do not utterly destroy you];

Ephesians 5:8-14
(CEB)

⁸ You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. ⁹ Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. ¹⁰ Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, ¹¹ and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. ¹² It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. ¹⁴ Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper!^[a] Get up from the dead,^[b] and Christ will shine on you

Thank you Lord for just enough light for this step...