Liz MacGahan reported on www.Newswer.com a few days ago that an enormous pumpkin has been disqualified from winning a $20,000 Prize due to a very tiny crack.
According to the article, the heaviest pumpkin in the USA this year was grown by Mike Schmit of Wisconsin. It weighed in at a whopping 2,520 pounds. But sadly, that “great pumpkin” will not be winning any ribbons, or prizes. Why? Because of a teensy, tiny crack.
It seems that, to win the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off and the $9 per pound prize that accompanies it, the pumpkin in question has to be completely perfect. Sadly, Schmidt’s giant gourd developed a tiny defect as a result to a quirk in how it grew.
Though disappointed, Schmit is not giving up. He’s already planning for next year. He’s been growing big pumpkins since 2016, and along the way, has perfected his craft. Hence, he’s already planning to save the seeds from his near winner in hopes of growing another one.
And he knows that will take a lot of work. Schmit said he spent about 30 hours per week this past year tending to three enormous pumpkins. His near winner for this year grew more than 50 pounds a day, and needed 150 gallons worth of watering every day to accomplish that.
And even if he won’t be getting ant prize money this year, he is still having fun. According to Schmit, “Pumpkins are like ice cream—everyone loves them.” He further notes that when he takes his giant pumpkins out of the patch and into town, “kids stare and grownups take pictures”.
As I read this short article, many thoughts came to mind. To begin with, I don’t much care for pumpkins. To be sure, I enjoy looking at them during the traditional fall holiday season. But beyond a little pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day and an occasional pack of store bought pumpkin seeds in pace of sunflower seeds, I don’t consume much pumpkin.
What’s more, when we grew them on the farm where I grew up, I remember that their number one purpose seemed to be for fall décor. And whose job was it to lug them to their appropriate place before the holidays? You guessed it… Yours truly! And after the holidays passed, whose job was to lug them to the hog pen for consumption? Again, you guessed it.
Worst of all, no one ever told me I could have entered one of them in a contest to actually get a prize and/or money! Alas! How many times could my father’s hogs have consumed my reward?!
Now I get that not everyone grew up on a farm. And for this reason, my thoughts about farm life may not have any bearing here. But another may. Indeed, the most relevant thought I may have had as a result of reading this article could be this one: “In the pursuit of perfection, even the smallest of flaws is unacceptable!”
If the Old Testament teaches us anything, it teaches us this very thing. In his New Testament Letter to the Christians at Galatia (chapter 3, verse 24), the Apostle Paul states: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
Paul’s point here is that the law had two purposes. The first is to show us exactly what would be expected of us if we would be perfect before Almighty God. The second is to show us that we could not possibly hope to achieve that, and thus to drive us to the grace of God as found in Jesus Christ.
You see, no matter how hard we might strive to be perfect, we will invariably fall short in some small way. We will invariably manifest some teeny, tiny crack in our façade! And because of this, once we do, we are inevitably disqualified for any reward from our pursuit of perfection.
What is more, this truth applies no matter how hard we try to be perfect. No amount of effort will overcome this principle. It is immutable.
How comforting it is, therefore, to come to the realization that we do not have to be perfect. How comforting it is to realize that once we repent and turn to God’s One and Only Son, Christ Jesus, He takes our imperfection upon Himself and imputes to us His righteousness in turn.
Thus, when we eventually stand before the Father in Heaven (as we all will), we will find that we are accepted into His Kingdom, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us.
The smallest of flaws disqualified a record setting pumpkin. Likewise, any single flaw, even the smallest of the small, disqualifies any human being for righteous standing before God! Thank God, therefore, for Jesus Christ! In Him, and in Him alone, we have the promise of eternal life!
STORY SOURCE: https://www.newser.com/story/312536/tiny-flaw-took-title-from-this-enormous-pumpkin.html.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: https://biblehub.com/galatians/3-24.htm.
According to the article, the heaviest pumpkin in the USA this year was grown by Mike Schmit of Wisconsin. It weighed in at a whopping 2,520 pounds. But sadly, that “great pumpkin” will not be winning any ribbons, or prizes. Why? Because of a teensy, tiny crack.
It seems that, to win the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off and the $9 per pound prize that accompanies it, the pumpkin in question has to be completely perfect. Sadly, Schmidt’s giant gourd developed a tiny defect as a result to a quirk in how it grew.
Though disappointed, Schmit is not giving up. He’s already planning for next year. He’s been growing big pumpkins since 2016, and along the way, has perfected his craft. Hence, he’s already planning to save the seeds from his near winner in hopes of growing another one.
And he knows that will take a lot of work. Schmit said he spent about 30 hours per week this past year tending to three enormous pumpkins. His near winner for this year grew more than 50 pounds a day, and needed 150 gallons worth of watering every day to accomplish that.
And even if he won’t be getting ant prize money this year, he is still having fun. According to Schmit, “Pumpkins are like ice cream—everyone loves them.” He further notes that when he takes his giant pumpkins out of the patch and into town, “kids stare and grownups take pictures”.
As I read this short article, many thoughts came to mind. To begin with, I don’t much care for pumpkins. To be sure, I enjoy looking at them during the traditional fall holiday season. But beyond a little pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day and an occasional pack of store bought pumpkin seeds in pace of sunflower seeds, I don’t consume much pumpkin.
What’s more, when we grew them on the farm where I grew up, I remember that their number one purpose seemed to be for fall décor. And whose job was it to lug them to their appropriate place before the holidays? You guessed it… Yours truly! And after the holidays passed, whose job was to lug them to the hog pen for consumption? Again, you guessed it.
Worst of all, no one ever told me I could have entered one of them in a contest to actually get a prize and/or money! Alas! How many times could my father’s hogs have consumed my reward?!
Now I get that not everyone grew up on a farm. And for this reason, my thoughts about farm life may not have any bearing here. But another may. Indeed, the most relevant thought I may have had as a result of reading this article could be this one: “In the pursuit of perfection, even the smallest of flaws is unacceptable!”
If the Old Testament teaches us anything, it teaches us this very thing. In his New Testament Letter to the Christians at Galatia (chapter 3, verse 24), the Apostle Paul states: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
Paul’s point here is that the law had two purposes. The first is to show us exactly what would be expected of us if we would be perfect before Almighty God. The second is to show us that we could not possibly hope to achieve that, and thus to drive us to the grace of God as found in Jesus Christ.
You see, no matter how hard we might strive to be perfect, we will invariably fall short in some small way. We will invariably manifest some teeny, tiny crack in our façade! And because of this, once we do, we are inevitably disqualified for any reward from our pursuit of perfection.
What is more, this truth applies no matter how hard we try to be perfect. No amount of effort will overcome this principle. It is immutable.
How comforting it is, therefore, to come to the realization that we do not have to be perfect. How comforting it is to realize that once we repent and turn to God’s One and Only Son, Christ Jesus, He takes our imperfection upon Himself and imputes to us His righteousness in turn.
Thus, when we eventually stand before the Father in Heaven (as we all will), we will find that we are accepted into His Kingdom, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us.
The smallest of flaws disqualified a record setting pumpkin. Likewise, any single flaw, even the smallest of the small, disqualifies any human being for righteous standing before God! Thank God, therefore, for Jesus Christ! In Him, and in Him alone, we have the promise of eternal life!
STORY SOURCE: https://www.newser.com/story/312536/tiny-flaw-took-title-from-this-enormous-pumpkin.html.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: https://biblehub.com/galatians/3-24.htm.