Pumpkin Chronicles: Making a Difference In the World

Does the enormity of our World prevent a Christian from making a difference?    I believe that we can all make a difference and I’ll explain my reasoning by again looking at our favorite fall fruit, the pumpkin.

During November, the United States celebrated Thanksgiving.  Consider these pumpkin statistics:

1. As American families joined together to share meals and thankful moments, approximately 50 – 75 million pumpkin pies were eaten.
2. 

   Pumpkin Seeds

   Pumpkin pie is considered the second favorite pie of Americans, although it is only eaten around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. (2 months out of 12)

3. Pumpkins are hardy plants and can be grown in six of the World’s seven continents.
4. Antarctica is the only continent where pumpkins cannot grow due to the cold climate.  They are strong enough to grow in Alaska.
5. Morton, Illinois, claims to be the pumpkin capital of the World.
6. According to the Nestle Libby’s website, Libby’s produces 85% of the canned pumpkin throughout the world.
7. A study at the University of Illinois found that 90% of US processed pumpkins are grown within a 90-mile radius of Peoria, Illinois, a close neighbor to Morton.  To put that into perspective, if Illinois covers 57,918 square miles and the United States covers 3,537,441 square miles, then 2% of the square miles of the U.S. produces 90% of our canned pumpkin each year.
8. In 2008, 90% of canned pumpkin represented 496 million pounds of pumpkin worth $141 million. That’s a big feat for one state.

How did Illinois become a pumpkin empire?  Eighty years ago, a canning company in Chicago, Illinois, named Libby’s, expanded their canning operations to include pumpkin.   The Libby’s company worked for years to perfect their processes and was dedicated to producing only the richest, most golden, creamy textured and pure flavor pumpkin on the market. Even today, they still continue to produce 100% pure pumpkin, canned without preservatives or additives.  They plant 5000 acres of pumpkins each summer and continue to increase and grow their plantings yearly.

Pumpkin Harvest

So, where am I going with this?  In 1929, did Libby’s set out to become the World’s largest pumpkin producing company?  I honestly don’t know; however regardless of their original goals, they achieved quite a lot in the past 80 years.  Their efforts to expand their canning operations created the demand that Americans have for pumpkin and pumpkin pie each and every year.

What if Christians didn’t worry about the outcome of serving the Lord, but just did it?  Imagine the impact and growth that would come from parking cars on Sunday morning, cleaning and sweeping the facilities at churches and charities, painting Sunday school classrooms, or cooking meals for people in need.  If those things sound small in the Kingdom or in this enormous World, consider the simple task of planting a pumpkin seed.  Even if you don’t consider your contribution to God to be huge, you must know that God always rejoices in the small things and uses humble beginning to build a prosperous future.  Without Libby’s canning expansion, American’s second favorite pie might be mincemeat instead of pumpkin.

Here are some verses to consider:

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” (Zechariah 4:10 NLT)

“Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be”! (Job 8:7 NIV)

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.” (Luke 16:10 NASB)

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