happy halloween, 2007

happy halloween! here is scary little dracula-boy. he lives in our house, like an impish terror on the loose. he turns curtain rods into trumpets! he says ridiculously cute things! he wears wax teeth! we carved pumpkins monday night. you can see the final results above and below. considering that shannon and i did all the cleaning/carving while jack mercilessly flung pumpkin seeds at the dog and cade made generally unsatisfied baby noises, i think they turned out pretty well.

mine is a steelers logo.
jack's is a dragon. which, interestingly is one of his favorite creatures while at the same time being something that he is scared of. he wants to go the ABC store (that's what he calls toys-r-us) and look at dragons and 'push the buttons,' but when we actually get up close to one, he is scared of it. it makes me wonder, am i like this somehow?

this is shannon's. she is the best pumpkin carver in the house, and she did this one at the end of our night in about 5 minutes. mommy always puts everybody else first.

so, the whole thing went really well. i think jack had fun. no one lost any digits or appendages. other than a few pumpkin seeds embedded in his hair, even the dog emerged alright. and above all that, shannon and i both cleaned up the pumpkin carving mess with smiles on our faces and an indescribable joy. here's why.

sunday at church the woman doing the children's time showed the children a pumpkin that had been cut open but still had all the 'guts' inside. she talked about how its gross in there, and how we have gross stuff in us, too. its called sin. she talked for a minute about sin. then she showed them a pumpkin that had been cleaned out completely. she said that Jesus cleans us out just like that pumpkin, removing the sin from us.

now, i really don't know how much jack listens to these things. he is one of the youngest kids who goes up there, and i feel like he is much more interested in watching the other children than in what the person is saying. but i learned differently. because monday night as we i was elbow-deep in pumpkin guts, shannon was feeding baby cade and jack was looking for another seed to hurl at max. and out of nowhere he spouts this little nugget:

jesus cleans out our bodies. on the inside.

ahhhhh! (that is meant to be said like a mother-to-be opening a 'cute' little outfit at a baby shower. try that. yep, that's it).

but seriously, this made me cry. not a bawling mess, mind you, but tears-in-the-eyes-so-that-everything-is-blurry kind of thing. but everything was not blurry. it is so clear to me that he is listening, that all kinds of things, truth and lies, are finding their way into his amazing little brain, and it is both an amazing joy and an awesome responsibility to witness this. i know i'm not the greatest father in the world. but i also know, and if it bothers you, excuse the childlike-ness of this, that jesus cleans me out. on the inside. and that may be all i ever really need.

happy halloween!

greg.