Seeds, Cookies, and Buckteeth

Last night we had GiGi and Popi over to carve a pumpkin and bake cookies. I think it was our best “Halloween pumpkin carving night” yet. This year I decided to turn the activity of creating a Jack-O-Lantern into a Christian devotional that compares the act of carving a pumpkin to the making of a Christian. I googled ideas of how to pull God into this Halloween boat that we love to sail on every October. After all, anytime is a good time to talk about Jesus, right?

We look forward to this holiday every year because it means we get to start putting up the first of many seasonal decorations for the year and begin brainstorming ideas for homemade costumes (As I am writing this, my husband is at the kitchen table with green yarn and a glue gun creating an Oscar the Grouch costume for Ty!) But each year, I search for ways to weave our faith in Jesus Christ into the annual quilt of holidays and celebrations (Christian based or not). I will write out the devotional at the end of this post if anyone wants to use it with their kids. If you have already carved your pumpkin, you can still go over it with them. I thought it was a good visual lesson for my kids to recall every time they see a Jack-O-Lantern.

The boys getting yucky! Watch the knife, Daddy!

Elise had to come inside because the mosquitos were attacking her! They love her and began biting before we even thought to spray her with OFF! The rest of us didn’t even get 1 bite. She must have super sweet skin...

We always bake our pumpkin seeds. I remember taking baggies of these to high school and getting sick from eating them all day. You can’t stop at just a few!

GiGi with Lane and Ty. These seeds were polished off in just a few minutes!

Halloween cookies! This is as good as it gets as far as making cookies goes. I’ll save my more creative baking for Christmas!

(That picture doesn’t look posed at all, does it?)

Sneaky little hand!

All of the kids with their pumpkin (the one under Lane’s arm). We took about 20 pictures, and this is as good as it got! Elise was too interested in her hands to give me a good shot with her pretty face in it!

Just a silly picture of Lane on our porch. I would like to call attention to our address. Kind of spooky! OOOOooooo…

My husband is a very creative and crafty kind of guy, but for some reason, our Jack-O-Lanterns always seem to come out pretty simple. They made this one with buck teeth. I guess that was easier than carving a grin full of teeth!

Christian Pumpkin Carving Devotion

Being a Christian is just like a pumpkin! Let’s carve a pumpkin and I’ll show you what I mean.

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the “dirt” off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the “yucky stuff” called “sin” out from the inside. (begin to pull out all of the slimy insides) Sin will not have such internal power. He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word. That’s why it is important to go the church and learn about God’s Word. He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God’s love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face. Our countenance is changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

Now we light the candle inside. This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. “Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.”

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us. We can say like this jack-o-lantern, “Thy presence, my light!”