For Such a Time as This...

In honor of Halloween this last week, I was inspired to write a poem.


Compared to the other pumpkins at the patch,
When you see the one I picked it will make your head scratch.

Your mind will reel and your puzzler will work over time,
You will look at it and think, "That isn't worth a dime."

But to me, the bumps aren't ugly nor is pattern too strange,
To my way of thinking there is beauty, don't think me deranged.

Beautiful because my life too has misshaped and not always smooth.
Beautiful because my life has warts and worries and out of a groove.
Beautiful because each bump and un-smooth places has made me who I am.
Beautiful because I look at this fruit and see the story of a life that isn't a sham.

So have your smooth, perfect pumpkin to crave a face for this week.
I'll take this one that others passed over because it wasn't sleek.
I'll take it like Charlie Brown took at poor little Christmas tree.
I'll take it and hold it and admire it because it is much like me.

Beautifully bumpy, misshaped, not always perfect.
Every time I see it, something within me just clicks.

So celebrate the less-than and passed over and not picked.
Because in God's beautiful creation ugly pumpkins might just do the trick.

May you sense God's grace as the days grow darker, nights longer, and we crave fruit to put a light inside...because that is how joy works.

Blessings ~~