This week is the week of the pumpkin. If you look around, there is pumpkin décor everywhere! There are pumpkin-spiced food items, scented items, cleaning products, and yes, even dog foods and shampoos. I even saw workout clothes that were pumpkin-spice color and had pumpkin artwork on them!

A favorite seasonal activity is carving this large orange vegetable, scooping out the slimy, multi-faceted insides, and placing some sort of lighting inside that radiates outward. I’m not sure whose creative mind thought to treat a pumpkin this way, but it sure caught on!

I have heard Jesus’ followers likening the pumpkin purging to His cleansing us of the yucky sin in the darkness inside of us and placing His light inside of us for all to see.

As I pondered this correlation, some things came to mind:

• The person who cuts the top off and cleans out the pumpkin gets pretty messy in the process. Indeed, Jesus, our perfect God, left perfect heaven to come down into our human mess, so that he could tell us clearly, in our language and understanding, how much the Father loves us.

Philippians 2:5,6,7-8 “Christ Jesus…being in very nature God…made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

• Cleaning out a pumpkin takes work and persistence. The more you try to dig out the slimy mess, the more goop there seems to be. You have to do some work to remove the unwanted parts. For us to be cleansed of our sin, Jesus suffered and died to make US righteous.

1 Peter 2:24 “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”

• The pumpkin requires some cutting and shaping for the light to be placed in the pumpkin and for it to be seen from the outside. I’m sure the pumpkin isn’t thrilled with the scraping out of the innards and the cutting of holes in its exterior. But these are things that allow it to host and share the light.

Hebrews 12:1-2,11 “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

• The light placed in a carved pumpkin radiates out of the darkness. Similarly, Jesus, the light of the world, puts His light in us to shine into the darkness of this world. In this way, we offer others the hope that we have found through the forgiveness of our sins and our promise of eternal security.

Jesus challenges us, “You are the light of the world…Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14,16

With every pumpkin that you see radiating light this week, I pray you are drawn to the light of Jesus that is offered to everyone.