Southern Indiana Living - Sept / Oct 2022

Everyday Adventures
Iwas unlocking my front door when I
spotted a dark object out of the corner
of my eye. Someone had placed a new
sign on our porch. It was black with
only two words written in white, cursive
script.
It said, “Hello, pumpkin.” Uh oh, I
thought. It has begun.
You see, my family has a problem.
We’re obsessed with pumpkins. Every last
one of us. Pumpkin decorations. Pumpkin-flavored
desserts. And, of course, the
actual orange balls full of seeds, goop and
wondrous, autumnal goodness.
You know how a full moon causes a
werewolf to go crazy and sprout fur? Fall
has the same effect on my family. Except
we don’t sprout fur. We sprout pumpkins!
Here we were, barely into August,
and the first pumpkin-related merchandise
had now appeared on my front
porch. It was like the firing of a starting
pistol. The race was on.
Typically, I’m the first one in the water,
but it looked like this year my wife
had beaten me to the punch.
Here’s how it usually starts. I’m
wandering around the grocery store, and
I stumble onto those adorable mini pumpkins
in the produce section. They show
up earlier than you would expect, when
it’s still 100 degrees out and fall is the last
thing on your mind. Just looking at them
conjures memories of crisp, fall evenings
and the promise of sweet relief from the
heat.
Before I know what I’m doing, I’ve
tossed a handful of tiny gourds into my
cart, telling myself it’s for the children.
Kids love pumpkins, right?
You know who else loves pumpkins?
My wife. So, she grabs some at the farmers
market or Walmart (or both!) because
it’s time to decorate for fall, she says. See,
these aren’t functional pumpkins. You
can’t carve them or make pies out of them
or anything. They’re for ambience.
But, of course, it doesn’t end there.
When my daughters were little, they
would take field trips to the pumpkin
patch and contribute to the madness by
bringing back pumpkins of their own.
However, these school events do not count
for our annual family pumpkin patch trip
because the family didn’t do it together.
Sure, by this point, we would already
have plenty of pumpkins at our
house, but the family trip is about making
memories. It just so happens that along
the way, we pick up four more pumpkins.
To make matters worse, we were
driving through the country a few years
ago and stumbled onto the mother lode, a
self-serve, roadside pumpkin stand.
It was a huge wagon overflowing
with piles of pumpkins of every shape
Pumpkin Palooza
and size, and they were dirt cheap. When
you see a deal like that, you’re practically
wasting money if you don’t buy them.
The pumpkin wagon became another annual
tradition.
Oh, and don’t forget our school’s fall
festival. Guess what they do there? Paint
pumpkins, and lots of them. Sometimes
there are even leftovers that the festival
workers try to pawn off on unsuspecting
families, so they don’t have to take them
home themselves. And who is the first
family to accept such an offer?
Ours, of course, because, hey, you
can’t pass up free pumpkins, right?
Did I mention the fact that one of
my daughters has a birthday in the middle
of October? Hmm, what kind of fun
kid activity can you do in mid-October, I
wonder? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist
to figure it out.
Decorate pumpkins!
This is totally different than the
pumpkin painting at school, though, because
we use glitter and sequins and other
fancy gourd decor to bling out our birthday
pumpkins like nobody’s business.
See, I told you. We have a problem.
We’re pumpkin hoarders. By the time we
make it to Halloween, our house is buried
in pumpkins. And we love it!
However, once we hit November,
pumpkins are the last thing on our minds.
Sure, we may keep a few around for
Thanksgiving decorations, but now it’s
time to move on to Christmas and our autumn
obsession fades away until the next
year.
I guess that’s human nature. The
things we’re into tend to come and go
based on our season in life. That’s one of
the many ways we’re different from God.
The Bible says that God has an obsession
too, but it’s not limited to one season.
God’s obsession is people. In Luke 15,
Jesus told three stories about something
that was lost: a coin, a sheep and a son.
However, these weren’t just stories about
lost items, animals and children. They
were stories about the people they mattered
to who were desperate to recover
them and bring them home.
Jesus’ point was that that’s how
God feels about us. He has no desire to
fill his yard with pumpkins, but He does
want to fill His house with people, all
kinds of people. It doesn’t matter where
we’ve been or what we’ve done, God has
a place for us with Him. So, on those days
when you feel lonely or left out or lost,
remember that there is a God who loves
you, who’s pursuing you and wants you
to know you never have to walk through
this life alone.how old you are. •
Photo credit: Debbie Galbraith / shutterstock.com
Celebrate fall with “Tales from the Leaf Pile”,
a devotional by columnist Jason Byerly
30 • Sept/Oct 2022 • Southern Indiana Living
Available in paperback and e-book at Amazon!
Want more? Check out
“Holiday Road: A Christmas Devotional”,
also available now at Amazon.
Jason Byerly is a writer, pastor, husband and
dad who loves the quirky surprises God sends
his way every day. You can read more from
Jason in his books Tales from the Leaf Pile and
Holiday Road. You can catch up with Jason on
his blog at www.jasonbyerly.com.