Pumpkin Patch Days

One of the things I love about my town is the sense of community and of tradition. Example: each year, one fall afternoon, they shut down a major road for the high school homecoming parade. Everyone comes out to watch the floats, cheer the football team, hear the marching band and ooh and ah over the fantastic homecoming mums!

And every autumn, the church down the road turns their lawn into a pumpkin patch. Church members volunteer to work the patch and the money raised is used to fund mission trips for the youth throughout the year. Neat, huh?

I've always meant to stop and in the eight years I've lived here, it just never happened. But I  get a little thrill every October when I see that the pumpkins have arrived.
Lately, I'm purposing to do things that I enjoy.  So, I resolved to visit the pumpkin patch at the church. A beautiful, warm sunny day, I wandered among the remaining pumpkins, taking my time to select just the right one.

There were families with children, on the same quest as I. Photos were taken, smiling young faces among the gourds.

One young couple propped an infant on a hay bale, clearly excited about this new tradition. I smiled in spite of myself.

Families.

Kelly recently posted about a trip her young family made to their local pumpkin patch. She wrote how she dreamed for years of this day, snapping pictures of her children in the fall harvest. And she closed her post with the following words,"Keep hope. Your pumpkin patch days are coming. And they will be worth the wait."

This really spoke to me. My life has changed so much in the past year. I'm not where I thought I'd be. I'm not where I hoped I'd be. And I'm not even sure anymore where I want to be.

I'm starting from scratch at a point in my life where I should be in the growing phase, not a building phase.  But this is where I am.  For someone who has always been a planner, it's difficult to see my plans destroyed, left only with broken pieces to reassemble somehow into a new plan.

My life upheaval isn't a punishment from God. I don't think that at all. But I do firmly believe that He can use any situation to teach us, to grow us. And I'm trying hard to learn the lessons He has for me. And I'm trying to be patient while He reveals His plan for me. It's hard, waiting on the Lord. But I know His plans are far better than even I, with my vast imagination, could put together.

I don't know what my future holds. I doubt I have days of little faces among the pumpkins. That's an opportunity passed.  I may not ever again have days to share my life with someone.  There are people who never even have one someone.  What makes me think I might get two?  That's just reality and a possibility I accept.

But I have Pumpkin Patch Days ahead of some sort. I'm sure of it. So I'll do my best to be patient. And do my best to keep my heart open for whatever He has in store for me. Because I know that indeed, it will be worth the wait.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11