I noticed something the other day that I can’t get get out of my mind. I was in the produce aisles at the W-mart super store (now big city friends with your Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and I don’t even remember what else is available out there… we here in our small town America are GRATEFUL for our local WM!!! We even stroll through it’s aisles on date nights with our husbands after dinner. hahaha! But that’s a whole other post entirely. So don’t judge! grin.) when I noticed a huge selection of lumpy, bumpy, warty, scarred, molded-looking, multi-colored-not-your-typical-rounded-orange-picture-perfect-pumpkins.
Because a friend of mine has a daughter that lives in a town with a Trader Joe’s, I was introduced to these bumpy gourds last year. (Of course, many of these are heirloom varieties and have been around forever, and all have been popular in decorating for a few years now… yada yada yada… but I hadn’t seen any up close and personal until then.) I found them fascinating. And to be honest… a bit ugly. At first.
But then, the more I looked at the details, the more beautiful these creations became.
The scars, bumps, and color variations on the outside are the very things that make them stand above the perfectly round orange gourds we’ve come to expect to see when we think of “pumpkins.” Their uniqueness made them beautiful. And valuable. And set apart for a special use.
I did a little research on them, and found that on a whole, the inside fruit of the warty heirloom varieties is rich and sweet.
I couldn’t stop thinking about those bumpy pumpkins God created… and how, to me, they began to represent the precious people He fashioned in His image and traded Jesus’ life to save.
Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder… as in the One who Created it. He promises to make everything beautiful in its time (Ecc. 3:11) – which includes us, lumps, bumps, and all!
With that in mind, I want to throw out a 3 part “Bumpy Pumpkin Challenge” to you. Of course, I’m taking it myself, too.
The Bumpy Pumpkin Challenge:
From now through Thanksgiving:
1. Every time you see yourself, and find yourself focusing on your own imperfections staring back at you, think of these pumpkins, and find something about yourself for which you can be thankful. Even if it’s your warts, scars, or discoloration from the “expected normal.” If you keep looking, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Father, and redemption of the Son, you will find a unique person, made in the image of God, beautiful, valuable, and created to be set apart for a special use. There is something beautiful about yourself for which you can be thankful. Ask the Lord to help you notice the beauty, and then thank God for it. Every time.
2. When you come upon a “bumpy pumpkin person”... you know the kind I’m talking about – the one that might be a “difficult person” in your life, or the one that is harder to love than the others… look past the warts and scars and bumps to find the beauty. It’s there somewhere. Just like it’s in you… it’s in that person too, who also was created in the image of God, and is loved by Him (hard as it may be to believe at the time!). Ask the Lord to help you notice the beauty, and then thank God for the something beautiful about that person.
3. When you see a pumpkin of any kind, let that serve as a reminder to ask the Lord to let His beauty shine through you to touch the lives of those around you. – For His Glory. You don’t have to know or understand how He will do this… just make your grateful self available to Him for His use, and He will make Himself beautifully glorious through you. Then thank Him in advance for what He will do.
Are you up for the challenge? Let me know! I can’t wait to see how God will use these little acts of thankfulness over bumpy pumpkins. 🙂 Here it is in a summary pic you can copy and keep with you as a reminder.
Speaking of beauty, this is a favorite verse of mine that I pray every day as I get ready in the morning:
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish you the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish it. Psalm 90:17 (KJV2000)
(I love how the Aramaic Bible in Plain English closes out this verse… emphasis, mine.)
Let the sweetness of Lord Jehovah our God be upon us, because of the works of his hands which he has fashioned for us, and he formed us among the work of his hands! Psalm 90:17 (ABPE)
Lumps, bumps, and all~
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