Pumpkins

I love pumpkins. Not only are they delicious in pie, pumpkin lattes, and cheesecake, but they are the absolute perfect color to complement the green grass right before it turns brown and dead for the winter. Orange and green are one of my favorite color combinations. I love driving by the pumpkin stands that are dotted across the county. Orange pumpkins  - such a cheerful color. And there are always children leapfrogging across the pumpkin piles, heaving pumpkins nearly as big as themselves in their chubby arms, or using a large pumpkin as a stool to rest upon. Very few people frown in the midst of pumpkins. Have you ever noticed that? Even before anyone carves a toothy grin in their bright orange crust, pumpkins are smiling. They are smiling on the inside, bursting with goodness. Oh to be a pumpkin! 

And they are so hardy! Tough as nails! It takes a strong grip and sharp knife to carve a pumpkin. Sturdy, happy, cheerful pumpkins. However, for all their cheerful nearly indestructible exterior, did you know that just one night of frost or  a few drenching rains and the ripe pumpkin on the vine becomes a sodden, melting mass of moldy putrescence? That hearty happy perfect globe disintegrates into a syrupy mess under seemingly insignificant adverse conditions.

Oh my! Maybe I am more of a pumpkin than I had thought. 

I couldn't sleep a couple of nights ago. I was tossing and turning worrying about how I could hold up the world. I am definitely one of those personalities that believe if I just try harder, life would be better and everything would be healed. But we all know that this is not true. We are not in control, much as we wish we were, and sometimes even appear to be for a season. Smiling hearty pumpkins until the frost hits.

In desperation, I flipped open my Bible. I read Galations 6:9 -

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

It says if we do not grow weary, keep plugging along in doing good, we WILL reap. Not we might reap, or if we do everything just right, we could possibly reap, but we WILL reap, if we do not give up. I was overcome by a wash of serenity, certainty, and even joy where just moments ago I had been spinning in my sheets. God's word is supernatural in its effect. I didn't ponder that truth for long though, because within seconds, I was fast asleep, dreaming of green valleys and bright orange pumpkins.

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For your mercy is before my eyes, and I am serene in your truth. (Psalm 25:3 CPDV)