There is one day left in October. It's hard to believe that November is already here. With November comes Thanksgiving and the end of another semester is that much closer. I have been so busy lately that it seems like I have not had time to stop and just enjoy life, and yet I have tried to pause and enjoy moments that take my breath away. As I have driven to and from Upland for ESL student teaching I have looked up to the mountains and sung songs at the top of my lungs. I have enjoyed a few miraculous sunsets in Azusa. I have experienced the slow healing of broken relationships. Thankfully, as an intern at Missionary Kids Ministries in Cedarpines Park, CA, I also have the amazing blessing of spending many weekends up in the beautiful mountains. This weekend is one of those many weekends, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself today in the company of many awesome TCKs (some college aged and others as young as 2 years old).
Today we went to the lake with a pair of brothers. They are ages three and five, half Finnish, and fluent in Finnish. With them we had the opportunity to feed the ducks, and it was a blessing to experience this simple joy with them. For children everything is done with such passion, be it joy or pain, and sometimes it is pure joy to just sit back and revel in their awe at life.
After returning to the house their mom pulled out a Pumpkin to carve, and of course all of us TCKs circled around in awe at this thing called "pumpkin carving." We watched the master (their mom, Heidi) at work and then all dug in. It's interesting how many of us as Christians have problems with Halloween, and then how we extend those emotions to the act of pumpkin carving. That was not the case tonight. As Heidi dug into the pumpkin, scraped out the seeds and strings, and scraped away at other useless parts of the pumpkin she took the opportunity to make it a teaching moment.
"Timothy," she said, "do you know what carving this pumpkin is like?" "No mom," he answered. "Well let's see. Was the inside of the pumpkin yucky when you put your hand in it?" "Yes" "Well that's how our hearts are when we're born. We have all of this sin and yucky stuff in them, but Jesus comes into our hearts and digs out all of that gross stuff."
Wow! What a mom! :) I will never look at a pumpkin the same way again, and I dare anyone to ever associate pumpkin carving with "evil." God made pumpkins, God made little kids, God made amazing moms like Heidi, and here I am in the mountains getting to revel in the awesomeness of it all. As I continue my journey here in this country called "America" and learn more about the culture here I also learn about life and how even the simple things hold profound truth.
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