The month of October ushers in the season of pumpkins. Pumpkin-spice lattes appear at all the coffee shops! Pumpkin-spice candles are in all the stores. Pumpkins of every size spill out of large bins in front of grocery stores. Pumpkin patches are open! It’s the season of pumpkin carving, in anticipation of “The Great Pumpkin Day.”
The pumpkins in our garden did not get the memo that they needed to turn ripe in October. Some turned ripe at the beginning of September. This photo was taken on September 10. These pumpkins have no idea they turned ripe “too soon.” They were just growing the way God made them to grow.
Five more new little baby pumpkins were just setting on at the beginning of September. What are they doing?? Don’t they know it’s “too late” to start trying to grow as a pumpkin now?? Summer is over … school has started. It’s Fall. There’s not enough time grow and get ripe.
The five new little baby pumpkins didn’t seem to care that it was “too late” for them to grow as pumpkins. They were just growing the way God made them to grow.
Not only that, they had the audacity to grow outside the garden fencing … suspended in mid-air. Don’t they know they “can’t grow that way”?? Everybody knows that pumpkins are too heavy to grow suspended in mid-air!
September turned into October, and while all the pumpkin-spice lattes were being devoured in all the coffee shops, the five little “late” pumpkins continued to grow in my garden.
The ones which were growing where they “weren’t supposed to be growing” – outside the garden fencing, suspended in mid-air – somehow they grew just fine. As they grew larger and became heavier, they didn’t break off from the stem under their own weight. No. Thin little pumpkin tendrils reached out and grabbed hold, keeping them steady and stable.
As their weight increased, the thin (but strong) pumpkin tendrils stretched along with the growing weight and in this way, they were gently (and ever-so-slowly) lowered down to the ground.
“The Great Pumpkin Day” was approaching … yet the five “late” pumpkins in our garden were nowhere near ripe. They were still vivid dark green.
Winter was fast approaching. The winter rains would be arriving soon. If the five “late” pumpkins were left out in the garden they would not survive the frost or the winter rains.
Can pumpkins ripen indoors the way green tomatoes ripen indoors??
I was willing to give it a try. I brought all five sugar-pie pumpkins inside and set them next to the big windows (and heater) in the living room. They were smaller than they would have been if they had had time to keep growing out in the garden. But this was as big as they would get. It was now a matter of waiting to see if they would turn ripe.
“The Great Pumpkin Day” came and went. November began marching by.
Much to my surprise … the five little sugar-pie pumpkins in my living room began turning orange. Bit by bit. Every so gradually.
Here you can see them just before Thanksgiving.
They had no idea they “weren’t supposed” to turn ripe at Thanksgiving. They were just growing the way God made them to grow.
All the pumpkins at all the grocery stores in October would probably have sneered and jeered at them: “What sort of pumpkin turns ripe at Thanksgiving?? That’s so weird. You’re not ‘supposed’ to turn ripe at Thanksgiving. Don’t you know you’re ‘supposed’ to turn ripe in October??”
The pumpkins lined up in my living room, ever-so-slowly changing from deep green to orange, remind me of the people of Corinth.
The brand-new Christians in Corinth had a hard time “turning ripe” (spiritually speaking).
Paul tells them: “Brothers [fellow Christians], I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?” – 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
Or in other words: Are you still not ripe yet??
It would be as if the five little sugar-pie pumpkins sitting there in my living room were still not yet ripe by Christmastime. Are you still not ripe yet??
For me, the pumpkins in my garden are a beautiful picture of what spiritual growth and maturity looks like in the life of a Jesus-follower.
Some people who come to Jesus are like the pumpkins which turned ripe at the beginning of September. It didn’t matter what the expectations were around them. They grew into maturity and ripeness just as they were meant to.
The five little pumpkins which were just setting on in September could be like people who come to Jesus “late” (so to speak). The people of Corinth were like this. Many came from lifestyles and backgrounds of sexual sin. They came from lifestyles and backgrounds of idol worship in the temples. They came from lifestyles and backgrounds of greed, drunkenness, slander & “canceling” each other, swindling and dishonestly taking advantage each other. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
They were “late” pumpkins … but they were little pumpkins nonetheless.
They came to Jesus … even if it might have seemed to everyone else around them that it was “too late.”
So also, in the same way, we today can still come to Jesus even if it might seem as if it’s “too late.” It’s never “too late.” Just like it was not “too late” for the late-growing pumpkins in my garden.
The late-growing pumpkins in my garden needed to be brought inside to finish turning ripe … it took patience and time … but they eventually did turn ripe.
So also, in the same way, those who come to Jesus “late” still have a chance to grow in spiritual maturity. It will take patience … and time. It will take discipline and obeying what God instructs in the Bible. But there is still a chance to “turn ripe.”
The question for all of us is: Am I turning ripe? Even if it’s slowly … bit by bit … ever so gradually. Am I growing in spiritual maturity?
Or am I just sitting there … unchanging … still hard and dark green. Unusable in any recipe.
