My accidental pumpkin patch...and me

I had to take a writing break. In the midst of the clean up of a busy, busy week and on the verge of a busy, busy weekend, these thoughts were consuming too much of my heart and my head. They simply had to find a resting place on the keyboard. I'm certain it is becoming obvious that I'm a little excited about my accidental pumpkin patch. This is not only because I love pumpkins and pumpkin patches in general; it is also because I see so much of myself in this seemingly accidental planting.

The pumpkin from which this sprang was a beautiful pumpkin.  It was painted up for Halloween and placed beside my backdoor in a little flower bed.  Halloween ended, the next holidays quickly followed suit. A freeze came - and another - and another. That pumpkin began to disintegrate; it's purpose clearly was over.  Spring came and it was a mournful, soggy mess of rot.  There it sat in a pile of damp and decaying leaves.  Clean-up surely was necessary!  On a nice warm day in April, I got out the garden rake and I raked that mix of muck and leaves out to the side of the road where our city road crews come and take away yard trash to be made into compost.

The city clean up didn't arrive and there that pile of leaf matter sat, waiting for something to happen. A few warm days and then a few more. One day I was surprised to see a burst of life springing up from that rotted mess.  They were so new, the seeds were still clinging to the sprouts.  I confess, my heart skipped a beat or two. I didn't think they would make it, but I so very hoped that they would. 

It's been a few short weeks now and my accidental pumpkin patch is thriving. It has grown and spread. I've had to redirect a few vines from crossing the street and place them back on the lawn where I could care less if they take over. After all, that pumpkin that once seemed lifeless and without purpose is GROWING.  Children riding scooters down the road even admired it, one shouting with glee, "Hey! That's pumpkins!"  That plant is certainly known by its fruit.

Now it is BLOOMING.  Beautiful, glorious, ginormous pumpkin flowers are popping up within and without.  The beauty is spectacular.    My hope is that that blooms will bear fruit, that little pumpkins will begin to appear.  If you think I'm happy now, wait until a pumpkin starts! 

You might be wondering at this point - what does this have to do with me?  Well, I'm like that pumpkin. Pat and I were in the autumn of our marriage. It was Harvest Party time.  Our children were bearing children. It was a time of hayrides and happiness, planning for a nice cozy winter together. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the freeze was coming, and I would be facing it without my partner.  Widowhood is a bit like sitting there in that small flower bed slowly decaying.  The stuff you gave your life to begins to cave in upon you. It was a shell and that shell is no longer of use.  At times you feel like there is no point but to sit there in your flower bed and await disintegration. 

God thought otherwise.  There was life within that pumpkin; there is life within me. There is a future and there is a hope.  There is still purpose.  When I raked that pumpkin to the roadside, some seed was left behind.  That seed fell in a rocky, shaded place.  It has sprouted and it has valiantly tried to grow --- but that wasn't the right place for it.  I, too, experienced a period where I thought I was in a happy place but it was too rocky, too shady, and unfortunately, not a place with the necessary nourishment to grow and bloom. That part is left behind; it is sad to see it die -- but the Maker has planted me in the place that seems fitting to Him.  While it might seem as unlikely a place to grow and bloom as at the end of the driveway, alongside the street, and upon a lawn...growth can and will happen if the Lord desires it to happen.

There is an awful lot in 1 Corinthians 7 that points to the concept of "blooming where you are planted."  I want to be like that pumpkin plant and be known by my fruit.  Before that pumpkin plant even has pumpkins on it, the plant is recognizable by the fruit that it is prepared to bear. Matthew 7: 16-20 (NKJV) says, " You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them." Even if I am planted in as strange a place as the end of a gravel driveway, I want to be bursting with the fruit of the Spirit so that passersby recognize the fruit, "Hey, that's a follower of Jesus!" and better yet, that fruit will DO GOOD in the world around me. Galatians 5:22-23 says, " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I don't know if you've got an accidental pumpkin patch or something else in your life to give you hope and to remind you that the Maker has a plan and a purpose for you.  I hope that you do.