Thankful Pumpkin

It’s the GREAT PUMPKIN, Charlie Brown!

“Thankful Pumpkin” devotional is to help us reflect on our blessings and express our gratitude to God and others during this time of Thanksgiving.

THOUGHT:

Many of us are looking forward to a few days off during the week of Thanksgiving.  There are so many wonderful things to do.  Some people travel to see loved ones. Some people SLEEP. Some stay in their jammies to watch the parade while enjoying the wafting of a pumpkin pie and turkey in the oven.  Some spend time outdoors because the weather is perfect, not too hot nor cold.  Some spend days watching college football.  Of course, some use the time to go shopping on Black Friday.

Yet, whatever it is that your family and friends enjoy, it’s important to be thankful of all the things God has given us and even the ability to do them.  Imagine the blind person who cannot see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?  How about the deaf person who cannot hear the marching band at the college rivalry game?  How about someone in a wheelchair who cannot play football in the backyard with all the cousins?  How about the soldier who is away from home at the holidays?  How about the homeless person who doesn’t even dream about anything except a small corner to warm himself?

At this time of year, I remember watching the Charles Schulz’ cartoon “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”.  Charlie Brown revered the magical pumpkin that would rise up out of the garden to grant wishes.  Yet, it was Linus who reminded Charlie of the real meaning of the season – a season of Thankfulness. 

So, when thinking of how much I should be grateful for, I ran across an idea that seems so simple but also unique and family-friendly.  A “Thankful Pumpkin”.  Below, please see a picture example of what this entails.  You obtain a giant pumpkin to decorate the table and leave a couple of Sharpies on the table beside it. Then……watch from another room, the number of times someone starts to pass by it but instead, stops, and wanting to interact, writes something he is thankful for on and “around” the pumpkin.  At that time, he can look at whatever anyone else in the family has written, contemplate it, and then make his own indelible mark on this very special holiday.  It becomes almost a family “journal” if you will of the thoughts and gratitude of the family. 

Then, on Thanksgiving, at the family dinner, everyone can pass the pumpkin around, sharing their thoughts and gratitude.  Then, it can even be a way to pray.  For each thought …..AMEN.  Think also of the possibility of carrying this tradition on through the generations.  Make sure to take a picture of the pumpkin each year.  Then, when the children are grown and the grandkids are fighting over the size of the pumpkin pie slices, bring out the old pictures and recollect all that has come true and those thoughts yet to be realized. 

Imagine an open Bible, a pumpkin and a sharpie at every Thanksgiving table.  Hmmm…..what an idea. So, turn down the TV for a moment, gather everyone around, and be thankful to the God who loves us and to Whom we are so grateful. 

PRAYER: 

Gracious and Heavenly Father, we come to you, with our family and friends, to say THANK YOU!  Thank you for our relatives, our friends, our homes, our bodies and minds, our jobs, and for YOU!  Help us to develop traditions that will be passed on through the years.  Help us to not only remember what we were thankful for but remind us of how much more we will be grateful for in the future.  Help us to look at those less fortunate and be the hand of God to them.  Help us to feed the hungry, sit with the elderly and lonely, hold the hands of the ill, and to be the heart and mind of Jesus.  Help us to create new memories for others so that they will be able to say THANK YOU as well.