If you haven't read it, I encourage you to request it from your local library. The story goes like this:
Once there was a farmer, who planted many different kinds of vegetables on his farm, but the best were the pumpkins. He planted the seeds and the pumpkins grew. They were all different shapes and sizes, but they were all pumpkins. At harvest time, the farmer chose one special pumpkin. First, he washed all of the dirt off the pumpkin, then he cut into the pumpkin and took out all the yucky squishy stuff--he took it to the compost pile, never to be seen again. Then the farmer gave the pumpkin a new face, with triangle eyes, a square nose, and a big wide smile. Next, the farmer put a candle inside his pumpkin and lit it. The pumpkin glowed and lit up the night. The story continues, "all the neighbors knew that, once again, the farmer had turned a simple pumpkin into a simply glorious sight."
Of course, it says right in the title that it's a parable...have you been following along with me? Let me give you a hint. The last sentence of the story reads: "In the same way, God the Father offers his children the chance to be made new, full of joy and full of light, shining like stars in a dark world."
So, let me spell it out for you. When the farmer washes the pumpkin, that's like us being washed in the waters of baptism. When the farmer removes the squishy pulp, that's like God taking away all the yucky stuff in our lives--our sins--away, never to be seen or thought of again. The pumpkin's face symbolizes us becoming new creations in Christ, and the light from the candle is Jesus' light shining through us for the world to see.
So, of course, after that, we had to carve our own pumpkin. First we washed it, then cut open the top and took out all the slimy squishy stuff...
Check out Pal's expression! She was not liking this part--that was some slimy gunk in there. Next we gave our pumpkin a new face, and placed a lit candle inside, so that the light shone out into the world.
I'm not sure how much of that Bubby and Pal will retain, but I certainly got a warm fuzzy feeling :)
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