I
remember waking up to the radio alarm one day to the refrain “Hello country
bumpkin, how’s the frost out on the pumpkin?” My wife and I laughed and laughed
at such words to be awakened with. In this season of the fall harvest when
pumpkins seem to spring up everywhere, I think about those days of innocence,
those days when our biggest concern was the frost on the pumpkin.
At
this time of the year our nation celebrates Halloween’s many activities, which
includes carving out pumpkins and sitting them on the front porch steps. It has
become a family tradition for millions of people. Yet very few use the bounty
of the pumpkin for food.
One
year at this time we had so many real pumpkins on our porch, fake pumpkins in
the flowerbeds, and even giant blow up plastic pumpkins in the front yard that
we earned the title, “The Pumpkin house,” from the neighborhood kids. But we
didn’t eat a single one! (Pumpkin, not kids).
Now
here we are again in the fall season when these orange spheres show up in front
yards like dandelions on a summer day. We surround ourselves with this
beautiful bounty as decoration but the food within we discard on newspaper.
The
Bible says, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for
the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee” (Psalm 116:7 KJV).
Are we enjoying the bounty?
The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in
Massachusetts in 1807, wrote:
“The Pumpkin” (1850)
Oh! Fruit loved of boyhood! The old days recalling.
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were
falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in it’s skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
Back in the olden days, a
carved pumpkin was placed on the family hearth to keep evil spirits from coming
down the chimney and into the home to do their dastardly deeds.
Today, in homes across
America many have replaced this use of the carved pumpkin with the Bible. Now
bear with me a moment. We set the Bible out on the coffee table, enjoy its
beauty, and yet rarely pick it up. We know that it holds a bounty within, yet
we don’t feast on the rich food of the word when it’s sitting right here in
front of us. We dust it, and display it with pride when visitors come, yet how
many times, like the pumpkin, does it end up just sitting on a newspaper?
The food within the Bible
nourishes our spiritual man within, yet we are starving ourselves and allowing
the spirits to enter our homes through the modern day chimney, the television.
Now that’s scary. Wouldn’t our
fore-bearers be aghast if they could see us today. We might call them
superstitious for trying to ward off evil spirits with a carved pumpkin, but
what would they say about us for not even trying.
The wonderful bounty of the
pumpkin awaits the pies, while the life giving food in the Bible awaits our
eyes. This season, when you see the
pumpkin carved so ingeniously and sitting on the porch, remind yourself of the
Bible written so divinely and sitting on your table. It has a candle within
which will never go out, and will keep every evil spirit at bay.
Inside
the Bible it says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my
path” (Psalm
119:105 KJV).
So hello County Bumpkin!
How’s the frost out on the pumpkin? Hello modern rival! How’s the dust out on
the Bible? Happy Feasting!
