Pumpkins

Daily Gratitude Year 5-Day 243: Today, I am grateful for pumpkins. 

I'm not jumping the gun on fall. Here in Morton, Libby's has been canning pumpkins for weeks. Harvest is in full swing and the Pumpkin Festival is just 13 days away. I can almost taste the Apple Cider Slushie made with Tanner's cider, the Pumpkin Chilli and Pumpkin Baked Beans. Others are craving the Pumpkin Ice Cream.

It may seem we are crazy for pumpkins... and maybe we are... but they really are special. Healthy and decorative. They bring our little community together in celebration and Thanksgiving. As someone said yesterday... Pumpkin Festival is a Homecoming for our community. 

It will be close to our 30th Pumpkin Parade as a family. The humble squash will shine for another celebration. 

The pumpkin is so versatile. From breads and pastries to soups and pasta fillings, it is not just something to carve at Halloween, to decorate for fall and serve at Thanksgiving. Canned pumpkin can make its way into a healthy diet at any time of year (provided the pumpkin harvest is good). 

Our neighbor is highly involved in the Libby' s harvest. We pray for his safety and the protection of all involved.  They run around the clock and accidents can happen when humans are weary. We give thanks for the farmers who plant and tend the crops and the workers who facilitate the harvest. 

We humans are a little like pumpkins at times. Kind a mess on the inside, but full of potential when cleaned up and cleaned out. When we offer ourselves to a sovereign God, and let him have his way, he can carve us into something unique, beautiful and light-bearing. The ordinary becomes extraordinary. Like pumpkins, we come in many colors, shapes and sizes. The diversity is endless and so are the possibilities. The master carver is never without a plan. 

"Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it." - 2 Corinthians 2:3 (The Message)

Today, I am grateful for pumpkins.