The Pumpkin Patch Parable and ....

One of my favorite writers and speakers is Liz Curtis Higgs.  You might have heard of her Bad Girls of the Bible series or even some of her fiction like Here Burns My Candle.  For years I also enjoyed her articles in Today's Christian Woman magazine.

Liz is also a children's author!  She has a series of Christian children's picture books that I appreciated as a teacher, and now we have our own Pumpkin Patch Parable.  This is a book that will be used for many years to share the truth of Jesus and how WE are to be lights for God.


The Pumpkin Patch Parable is a parable (a story that illustrates a truth) that tells how the Farmer plants the pumpkins.  He then chooses a special pumpkin.  He is able to remove all the slime and pulp and give it a new face.  The Farmer made the pumpkin glow and it made all the people smile.  It is summarized well, explaining that God also offers the chance to be made new, and full of joy and light so that we can shine in this world.  (Liz Curtis Higgs explains in an introduction that it is not a celebration of Halloween, but an alternative autumn message that redeems a familiar symbol of the harvest season for His good purpose.)  I really appreciated all the Scripture included in this book to help a child understand the meaning behind the parable (in addition to the explanation at the end).

If you read The Pumpkin Patch Parable, it will be clear that the logical follow-up activity would be to carve a pumpkin, but, um, we didn't do that, nor did we have pumpkins when we made this craft.  So we made our own.

For my almost 2 year old, I precut the shapes and had him find the shapes.  Then we called them the related name of eyes, nose, mouth, and stem.  My older child got to choose which color she wanted to make each feature and which shape it was to be.  That's why it has a purple nose and eyes!

This is such a simple craft.  If you have not yet made crafts with your young child, I would encourage you to try a basic pumpkin craft like this one.  Afterward, you can have fun carving a pumpkin to share about God's love and forgiveness!

To see another autumn craft, but not pumpkin related for this book, visit Just Next Door!

This craft was featured at Winning Readings!  I'm also linking up to stART and ABC and 123's show and tell!

Since this is a week of celebration, giveaways, and this is such a fabulous book...after getting our own copy this month as a birthday gift, I found a gently used copy...just for you!

Giveaway

If you would like to win be a follower of this blog and leave me a comment telling me why you want this fabulous book!

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If you previously left a comment between 10/1/10 and 10/24/10 give yourself another entry/comment!

Blog about this week's celebration here at Live, Learn, love for 3 more entries!  (Blog once...and it counts all week!)

Giveaway ends Tuesday, October 26th at 7 pm EST.

Thank you, Aunt Janice and Uncle Bill for our copy of this book.  This is a different copy...one I found used, but got to share with a special reader just in time for the celebration.