Don't you just love pumpkins?  I can remember as a little girl seeing the pumpkins in the grocery store and just wanting/needing to touch them all.  They come in all different shapes & sizes and are just pretty interesting things.  You all know how I have a special place in my heart for sheep.  Well I've got a special place in my heart for pumpkins too!  We have a much loved and well worn copy of The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs that shares a wonderful story of how God can change each of us just as a farmer can transform a pumpkin seed into a glorious sight. 

"My hand made all things. 

All things are here because I made them," says the LORD.  Isaiah 66:2

Jonathan seems to enjoy pumpkins a lot like I do too.  He has had so much fun watching them grow in the garden and moving them around within the house.  He loves looking at other people's fall displays and to see the pumpkins at their houses.  He just thinks no house is complete without a pumpkin!

Create in me a pure heart, God.  Psalm 51:10

Jake, meanwhile, is all about those big humongous pumpkins.  Some of those things are outrageous!  So I'm going to let him research what it takes to get one of those giant pumpkins and see if he can grow some next year.

And then there's Joe. He's getting a little older so he isn't as impressed with pumpkins anymore, but he is really starting to get the difference between why we enjoy the fall and why some people celebrate Halloween.  We have always carved pumpkins together as a family in late October.  Sometimes we've carved the UT logo on there, one year we used a drill to create dot patterns on them, sometimes we've put funny faces on them or tried to make them look like our family.  We just have a lot of fun with them.  But we always carve a cross on them to let our light shine for Jesus.

God once said, "Let the light shine out of the darkness!"

And this is the same God who made His light shine in our hearts.

2 Cor 4:6

This year was pretty neat though.  When Joe started carving his pumpkin, he carved the crosses at Calvary.  And that was all.  After all these years of talking about how we need to let our light shine, he did it on his own.  We didn't suggest it or recommend it.  We had planted the seeds, tended them and were blessed to see the fruit. 

In the same way, you should be a light for other people. 

Live so that they will see the good things you do. 

Live so that they will praise your Father in heaven.  Mt 5:16