Hello, Pumpkin!

“Hello pumpkin, it’s good to see you!”

“I love you pumpkin!”

Those are the greeting words I received from my grandmother growing up. She called all her grandchildren “little pumpkins”. It was a term of endearment and love. When all her little pumpkins would come to visit in North Carolina and there were 6 of us, including my cousins. My grandma and grandpa would welcome us with a warm and welcoming reception. I truly didn’t mind being called pumpkin growing because I knew that it came from a place of love and now it’s something that always brings a smile to my face when I remember.

It could be that with the autumn season brings, fall festivals, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hot apple cider and hayrides that triggers this memory of mine. But one thing I have been pondering on is the warmth and welcoming nature that went along with our little nicknames.

It wasn’t that we loved pumpkins, looked like pumpkins, or was obsessed with pumpkin pie that could have caused a complex rather just a term that for some reason or another my grandma chose to call us. How my grandma made me feel was loved and special.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

I think that’s what I remember most of all. How I felt when my grandma and or grandpa would say, “come here pumpkin” “you’re all our little pumpkins” The warmth, love and acceptance was tangible.

You will never forget how someone makes you feel, must be true. Have you ever experienced anything like that? The impact that people have on one another is truly magnificent. But let me just say, there are cold people in this world and there are warm people in this world. I don’t know about you, but I want to be remembered as someone who was warm and welcoming, someone who radiates Jesus’s love.

Jesus loves you and because He loves us, He calls us sons and daughters of God, His masterpiece, children of God. God calls us His beloved. Terms of endearment, acceptance, and love. When I think about the character of God I think of His goodness. And I see throughout scripture His love on display by how Jesus made people feel by simply being around Him. Crowds would follow Him; people would squeeze into house to hear Jesus speak; children jumped on His lap. Jesus never made anyone feel less than. Jesus always made those around them feel accepted and loved. Jesus is warm and welcoming. He cares and has compassion for people.

I will never forget how I feel when I’m in His presence. Each moment in His presence is sweet and filled with His love.

“We know how much God loves us because

we have felt his love and because we believe him

when he tells us that he loves us dearly.

God is love, and anyone who lives in love

 is living with God and God is living in him.” 

1 John 4:16

This is just how my mind works so bear with me for a moment. I’m sure you are aware of the different personality tests that are accessible on the internet like the 16-personality test and the enneagram. I confess, I have completed both and have reviewed the results which have been both scary and enlightening, to say the least. Either one does NOT give me justification or an excuse for how I respond or treat others. It’s easy to say “oh this is just who I am” or just simply agree with the results and show it off like it’s a pass for poor behavior. All I want to say about my results are, thank you, Jesus! My personality and my life without Him would be terrible!

My identity or how I act is not based on or locked into a personality test.

 It’s only by His transformational power and the Holy Spirit working within me making me a NEW creation that I can treat and love people around me. I am not held captive to my sinful nature or my weaknesses (as the results from the personality test will clearly show you) rather I can rise above them and those areas that could wreak destruction and chaos are redeemed by God’s grace.  

If we confess to love Jesus, then our lives must align with how Jesus wants us to live especially when it comes to how we treat and how we make other people feel.

We must allow God’s love to penetrate so that His love can emulate in our lives.

We live in a world today that will validate and justify the words we speak and the behaviors we choose by stamping it with approval despite the consequences: ‘this is just who you are, if your happy that’s all that matters.’

As children of God, we must remember the world needs Jesus’s truth and love. Those are the two things that can bring light and clarity to our lives as we live in this world.

What made Jesus so attractive to people? It was His love, how He made people feel, and the truth that He spoke and continues to speak.

 Do people want to be around us? Do people see God’s love within us? When we speak is it out of love?

We are reminded in Colossians 4:6 how our words can impact others,

“Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.”

It’s funny how one little nickname from my childhood can spur this whole thought process that I am now writing about.

God surely has a sense of humor and sometimes He uses the simplest things in life to teach such profound lessons and or provoke deep conversations.

As I am confident that my grandma would call each of you her little pumpkin too, my hope is that you become so warm and attractive for the kingdom that people follow and remember you because of how you made them feel, LOVED.

Love. Like. Jesus.

Bethany Marshall