In returning to this part of Africa, I confess to having fond memories of certain things that
happened when we lived here before. For example, I remember doing a weekend evangelism and being given a pumpkin. It was an African blue-green pumpkin. On the outside these are a different colour than than the pumpkins in North
America, but they make great pie. Because the flesh is thicker a single pumpkin will sometimes make 15 to 20 pies.
I was looking forward to a pie for Thanksgiving, and another at Christmas. But when the time came, we could not find any pumpkin. It was the wrong time of year. This past Wednesday, as we were driving toward Malkerns, I spotted a pumpkin at a
vegetable stand beside the road. We continued on to Malkerns but stopped to check the pumpkin as we returned. The price (E25, or about $1.70) did not seem bad, and the pumpkin was solid. There were no soft spots or cracks. It appeared to be a hybrid of some kind. It is not a blue-green pumpkin, but it is not exactly like the pumpkins of North America either. But, once it is processed and put in the freezer, I should be able to have plenty of pie come Thanksgiving.
Preaching on a pumpkin Being who and what I am, I should surely make some application of that, should I not?
If I wait until October or November to look for a pumpkin, I will miss out on my pie again. One must learn to think ahead. One of the drawbacks to modern conveniences is that most of us no longer think ahead. One-hundred years ago, everyone knew that if you wanted pumpkin for Thanksgiving, you needed to plant pumpkin months ahead. Now, most people think that if you want pumpkin, you just stop at the store and buy it in a can.
Canned pumpkin is mighty handy. But that kind of convenience has done something negative to our thinking. We are no longer a people who plan for the future. We live for the moment. We depend on the supply chain and are clueless if it breaks. If the only result were to miss out on pumpkin pie, that would not be too serious, but more serious matters are at stake.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul”? (Matthew 16:26, ESV)