Planting a Pumpkin

      It was the first year of our school garden and one of our goals was to get every student into the garden to have the experience of planting something. We had all kinds of interesting seeds to sow.  Pumpkins and watermelons were the favorites of most of the students. One of our school's most successful students told me directly, "This is not my destiny!"  
       Is the idea of working with the soil or working manually beneath us in this day and age? Is the idea of starting at the bottom as old fashioned, as I am?  Is there a reason to learn a business from the ground up?  Is there a reason to learn how to work with your hands or at a seemingly low level at least for some period of time? Is being a "worker" for the less intelligent only?
       One summer, I had the opportunity to clean houses for money.  It was an invaluable experience, because of what I learned. It helped me see how people can be treated if they are considered to be lower than others.  It taught me the value of doing a careful, thorough job and the satisfaction we can gain from  working hard physically. It helped me understand how people organize their homes, lives and how they see others.
       Christ taught us that the greatest among us would be  a servant of all. Christ was not just talking about "starting at the bottom".  He was talking about a way of life and what true leadership would be like. How can we be a wise leaders if we cannot understand what it is like to be at the bottom? At Passover, Christ asks us how can we truly be humble unless we have "washed some one's feet"?
       There are a lot reasons to start at the bottom in any field, but when it comes to farming or gardening, there is so much to be learned and experienced.  Besides the understandings and joy found in the work itself, the reliance on God and the wonder at His creation are essential to the planting,watering, cultivating, and pruning process. (How could anyone who works in a garden be an atheist?)
       My son started a new job doing the thankless job of door to door, commission-only sales.  Of course, this is not my dream for a soon-to-be college graduate, but I know that this experience, like many other things he will do in is life, will teach him the view from the "bottom" and give him more understanding and perspective of how life works.
       Don't we all love Cinderella stories?  The hard-working oppressed young lady with outer and inner beauty was finally recognized by Prince Charming and eventually lived happily ever after.  She never lost her humility and understanding, because she started at the bottom and learned from her experiences.
       If we do not see gardening, cleaning a house, working manually, selling door to door, flipping burgers, "washing feet", serving others or getting dirty, as our "destiny"; perhaps, we just need to get in the garden and plant a pumpkin seed. We can sow it, water it, tend it and watch it. Perhaps, we can stop to reflect on the process, as well.  A pumpkin vine can grow as much as six inches in a single day. ( Everything we do in life should should help us grow!)
       When the pumpkin is ripe and ready, pluck it from the vine and watch it turn into our carriage that will take us to our destiny!  One healthy pumpkin vine may produce 10 to 15 beautiful pumpkins.  If we learn our lessons well at the bottom, we may be given many exciting other choices in life: carriages that will take us to our destiny! (Planting pumpkin may be more than a means to an end: it may be an end in itself.)
       Cinderella, plant a pumpkin and your carriage will await you!