A PUMPKIN PARABLE

Penny For Your Thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker

It’s pumpkin time! Time for Jack-o-lanterns, visiting pumpkin patches, making favorite pumpkin desserts and hopefully some cooler weather.

Did you know there is a National Pumpkin Day? It is October 26 and that happens to be the day I was born. I don’t recall ever having a pumpkin when growing up. With living in the country and being a religious family, Halloween wasn’t one of our biggest holidays.

I do remember my little brother having some kind of mask that he wore around the house trying to scare us. Now, what was funny is when he looked real hard at that mask, it scared him so bad we had to hide it in a buffet drawer. 

Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin roll are holiday treats that a pumpkin provides. 

So how did pumpkins and carving them on Halloween come about? According to Irish folklore there was a guy named Stingy Jack. It is said that Stingy Jack tricked old Satan multiple times and was so bad that God would not let him into Heaven and the Devil would not let him into H-ll either.

He was sent down into the cold dark night with just a  single lighted coal to find his way. So Jack took a turnip, hollowed it out and placed the ember into the turnip therefore that story of Jack became Jacks Lantern or Jack O Lantern . 

The Irish began to hollow out apples and turnips and made ugly faces with candles in them to scare off Stingy Jack.

My kids all loved pumpkin carving and if cooked right they liked the seeds which you can eat.

Did you know there is a spiritual example of a pumpkin? Jesus spoke in parables and so this story is like a parable.

We like to pick and choose our pumpkins, just as God chooses us.

Cutting off the top and removing the insides or guts of the pumpkin is like God cleaning us up and forgiving our sins.

Then cutting a big smile on the pumpkin’s face because we have become a new person.

Putting a light in the pumpkin is letting our lights shine and letting everyone know we are forgiven.

Now I know people will create all kinds of faces on pumpkins, have growing contests and pie baking contests. 

Pumpkins have been around many, many years and the flavor we get really makes those pies taste good. 

Do you have a special pumpkin recipe? Do you have a recipe for pumpkin seeds? What is the biggest pumpkin you ever grew? Let me know and I’ll give you a Penny For Your Thoughts.