Noble Calling (standard:Inspirational stories, 3985 words)
Author: Eutychus	Added: Oct 04 2010	Views/Reads: 3070/2059	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A father looks at the world, his young daughter, and considers his fears for her future.

As Kyle emptied the grass clippings, he took note of the size of the wet
spot in the yard that served as his composting pile. Over the past 
three years, clippings and leaves from all over the neighborhood had 
made it about two-thirds its original depth. But it would be a number 
of years yet until the depression would be an actual part of the yard. 

He flipped the bag upright and looked out over the four-foot tall weeds
that filled the wet spot beyond the edge of his grass clippings every 
summer. He noticed that there was more light visible through the center 
of the weedy patch than around the edges so he pushed aside a handful 
of greenery to examine the cause. 

Three feet in he found a blanket of vines that had obviously discouraged
the growth of weeds. Further examination revealed five pumpkins beneath 
the large, prickly leaves. Though two of them were still green in the 
southern hemisphere, three were fully orange. A discovery of this 
magnitude had to be shared, so he turned off the tractor and headed to 
the house. 

“Can you two take a quick break?” he asked his wife and daughter who
were at the kitchen table playing Candy Land. 

“Sure. What's up?” Maddie asked. 

“There's something in the back yard you need to see. Constance, do you
remember Mr. Scary Face from Halloween last year?” 

“My pumpkin light.” 

“Yes, your jack-o-lantern. Do you remember what we did with all the
yucky stuff inside the pumpkin?” 

“You put it in with the leaves?” 

“Yes I did. I want you to see what happened.” 

As they walked to the wet spot, he explained the situation to Maddie,
who seemed more excited than he had expected she would. He pulled the 
weeds aside and invited Constance to check what was inside. 

She stepped into the unanticipated pumpkin patch, looked around and
finally saw the pumpkins. Her eyes widened and her tiny jaw dropped. 
“Mommy, do you see?” 

“Yes I do,” she said and smiled more in response to Constance's reaction
than the fact of the pumpkins. 

He recognized the approaching moment, knelt down between Constance and
the largest pumpkin and put a hand on her shoulder. “Do you like what 
happened?” 

“Oh yes, Daddy. Thank you for planting them.” 

“But I didn't plant them. All I did was throw away something that we
both thought was yucky. And look what God did with that yucky stuff. He 
took it and made a beautiful pumpkin patch out of it. God can take the 
messy stuff in life and turn it into something wonderful.” 

While Constance made a detailed examination of the rest of the crop her
parents watched contentedly. 

“You know, that was a nice little observation about the messes in life.”


“You've got to take advantage of every teachable moment. Who would have
thought that carving a jack-o-lantern last year would have resulted in 
this moment? God's grace is everywhere. And I don't just mean in the 
pumpkin patch.” 

“You mean that little explosion of joy when she saw the pumpkins?” 

“Exactly. So, have you ever made a pumpkin pie from scratch?” 

A week later as he removed a glass pie dish from the dishwasher, Kyle
reflected on the events that had led up to its use in the creation of 


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