Loving Fall Time: Pumpkin Devotion

It's fall time! It's my favorite season of the year. So, I will post some reasons why fall is so special to me over the next couple of days.
Fall has always been special to me for simple reasons like watching the leaves turn colors and feeling the air turn cooler. My Dad used to make homemade apple cider, and that was always so tasty! But as an adult, there have been some other reasons God has given me to cherish fall time.
Perhaps some of you grew up with the tradition of the Pumpkin Devotion. I'd never heard of it until about eight years ago! For anyone who hasn't ever heard about it, this is just wonderful! I do this with my kids each year now as an alternative to Halloween.
The pumpkin symbolizes the human heart. The kids and I cut it open together and make a big deal about just how yucky (big vocab, I know!) the inside of the pumpkin really is! Then we experience how very difficult it is to clean out all the GOO (yes, more big vocab). We stop and discuss how the human heart is full of sin (Jeremiah 17:9, Matt. 15:18-20). But Jesus loved us so much - even before we knew Him - that He was willing to die so that we could have that terrible sin removed from our hearts (Romans 5:8, John 3:16). But praise God! He did not leave us empty! Oh, no - You know, we would never clean out a pumpkin and leave it that way! We continue the work of carving a face on it and putting a candle or light inside of it. God's work in our lives doesn't stop with forgiveness either! See, forgiveness is the work of of the Son of God FOR us. But once we become His child...His little "punkin'" - He fills us with His Holy Spirit! That's the work of the Spirit of God IN us! So, at this this point, the kids and I carve a cross or happy face in the pumpkin (I prefer a cross, personally) and place a candle inside of it. The picture this creates for us is that the lost world is dark, and if we are filled with the Light of Jesus Christ, we will be a picture of the cross to them.
The completed pumkin symbolizes to me the new creation I am in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). This year as I cleaned out the pumpkin, I was faced with the decision of what to do with the seeds and yucky goo (you've learned my big vocab, now, haven't you!). I really just wanted to throw it away and be done with it. That stuff's really gross! But the kids love to toast the seeds and eat them. Well, this really struck me, when I considered what God does with my yucky goo - all the sin of my past and all the seeds of the flesh I have sown. He cleans all of that out of my heart and forgives me - but He then turns it into something useful and even beautiful! Think about verses like Ecclesiastes 3:11 (He has made everything beautiful in its time.), Romans 8:28 and 8:37 (...in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose; ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors...), and Psalms 130:7-8 (...and with him is full redemption. He Himself will redeem Israel from alltheir sins.). God doesn't just throw away the seeds and yucky stuff! He redeems that, too! He's redeemed everything about me! That means it now belongs to Him, and He can do with it as He pleases. He uses it for good. He can use me inspite of all I've done. He allows me to pass on the things He's taught me from my mistakes and sins. He's given me an opportunity to be a picture of His cross, a vessel of His light, and more than a conqueror! I'm His lil' punkin.