Peanut Pumpkins

I saw my first peanut pumpkin today. On my walk, I ventured past a local church selling organic pumpkins, all kinds and all shapes and sizes, along with different kinds of gourds. Most were traditional orange, and a few were pale white.

But the ones that interested me the most were the peanut pumpkins. I remember seeing them in drawings from some children’s book a long time ago, but didn’t even know they really existed. Maybe that sounds ignorant to admit, but it’s true. I didn’t know peanut pumpkins existed. I found out they originally came from France and that what looks like peanuts to some, looks like warts to others.

You either see this type as either ugly or beautiful, I was told. I find them strikingly beautiful. I don’t think there are many things on this earth that are ugly. Ugly actions, ugly intentions, but not ugly on the outside. Once in a while you have to look closely, but the beauty is there. Kind of like Beast in “Beauty and the Beast.” His beauty was there all along; he just needed someone to see that part of him.

Kind of like peanut pumpkins…

So the next time you start to judge somebody or something based on the outside, look again. Use your heart along with your eyes. And you might just be wonderfully surprised by what you discover.