The Pumpkins Nobody Planted

Dannah Gresh: Hi, True Girl! Dannah Gresh here. I want to personally invite you to the True Girl Crazy Hair Tour!

Join Dove Award-winning children’s worship leader Yancy and me for an unforgettable night of worship, laughter, Bible teaching, and some seriously crazy hair!

We’re going to help everyone discover what it looks like to stand out and stand up for Jesus in a world that’s constantly telling them to fit in.

And . . . this is your last chance to experience the True Girl Crazy Hair before we retire this specific tour curriculum and launch something brand new in 2027.

Come make a memory with your mom. Get tickets at MyTrueGirl.com.

I really hope I’ll see you there!

Clair Black: This is True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. I’m Claire Black. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us, one drive at a time. Buckle up. You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus!

Song:

I am a true girl.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
I am, I am, I am a true girl!

Welcome back to “More Lessons from the Barnyard.” Dannah loves to talk about her cute and silly animals. And she especially loves showing how as part of creation, they can teach us about God’s character and power. 

Today, we’re going to learn more about God’s mercy, or forgiving love. Have you ever been so aware of your sinfulness that it’s difficult to feel like God could ever use you? Maybe you’ve struggled with lying or being mean, and you just feel like your sinfulness keeps heaping piles and piles of “ick” in your life. God’s character and power is strong enough to do something merciful and amazing with that.

Let’s head to the Gresh farm to find out more.

Right now, it’s nighttime at the farm. Dannah has just sent Suzy Wiebel a text that basically said: “Come over. You have GOT to see this.”

What did she find?

Suzy Weibel: [Hollaring into the night] Dannah!? Where are you?

Dannah: [From a distance] Up here, Suzy!

Suzy: There you are! You do realize it’s dark out here?

Dannah: I know! I have a flashlight. Come on!

Suzy: Your text sounded urgent. What’s wrong?

Dannah: Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s so very right!

Suzy: Where are you taking me?

Dannah: The muck pile?

Suzy: You called me over here at night . . . to see your MUCK pile?

Dannah: I did.

Suzy: This better be good.

Dannah: Oh, Suzy, it is!

Okay. Watch your step. We’re almost there.

Suzy: Almost where?

Dannah: Here! Shine your flashlight down there.

Suzy: Okay.

Dannah: See it?

Suzy: I see leaves.

Dannah: Look underneath.

Suzy: Wait. Is that . . .?

Dannah: ORANGE!

Suzy: It’s a pumpkin!

Dannah: My first ORANGE pumpkin!

Suzy: Your first orange pumpkin.

Dannah: I’ve been waiting weeks. They’ve been all green, and I’ve been waiting for one to turn orange.

Suzy: Okay, that’s pretty exciting. But Dannah, why did you plant pumpkin seeds in your muck pile?

Dannah: I didn’t.

Suzy: You didn’t?

Dannah: No, but I do have a suspect.

Suzy: Who?

Dannah: Cassie?

Suzy: The donkey?

Dannah: Cassie loves pumpkins. Every fall we feed her pumpkins. 

Suzy: Are you saying . . .

Dannah: I’m saying sometime last fall Cassie ate a pumpkin.

Suzy: Alright.

Dannah: And apparently, some pumpkin seeds . . .

Suzy: Yes?

Dannah: . . . made their way through her . . . 

Suzy: Dannah!

Dannah: . . . and into the muck pile.

Suzy: I see. So nobody planted these pumpkins.

Dannah: No one with a shovel, anyway.

[donkey bray, hoof steps approaching]

Suzy: Cassie!

Dannah: The suspect has arrived!

Suzy: And here comes everyone else.

Dannah: They tend to move as one herd. Everybody wants to know what we’re doing out here in the dark.

Suzy: Look at them. We’ve got an entire barnyard audience!

Dannah: Well, everybody, take a good look. Somehow, out of this stinky, messy muck pile . . .

Suzy: . . . a beautiful orange pumpkin grew.

Dannah: And that reminds me of a woman in the Bible.

Suzy: A pumpkin in the muck pile reminds you of a woman in the Bible?

Dannah: Well, the pumpkin and the muck pile.

Suzy: You should explain. 

Dannah: To be clear, I’m not calling the woman a muck pile.

Suzy: Glad we cleared that up!

Dannah: But she did have some muck in her story. There’s a story in Luke chapter 7 about a man named Simon. He was a Pharisee, which means he was a religious leader. And Simon invited Jesus to his house for dinner. While they were eating, a woman came in. The Bible says she was known in that town as a sinful woman.

Suzy: So people knew she had made some really bad choices.

Dannah: They did. We don’t know exactly what she had done—and I think that’s important. We don’t need to know.

But she knew, and Jesus knew.

She came up behind Jesus crying. She was so overcome with sorrow for her sin and love for Jesus that her tears fell on His feet. She wiped them with her hair, kissed His feet, and poured some of her own very expensive perfume on them.

Suzy: I know the story.

And that act of kissing his feet and pouring perfume on them was about as strange as texting a friend in the night to say you’ve found an orange pumpkin growing in a muck pile.

Dannah: More so!

Suzy: But these were humble acts of honor and love. She was showing Jesus with her actions: “I know I need You, and You are precious to me.”

Dannah: It’s this incredibly tender moment. But Simon isn’t touched by it. He’s judging her.

In fact, Simon thinks to himself, If Jesus really knew what kind of woman this is, He wouldn’t let her touch Him.

And the original words of the Bible—Hebrew—well, the words “what kind” was one Hebrew word. And, it was a slang word that kind of meant “muck pile.” 

Simon was saying “If Jesus knew the muck in this woman’s life, he wouldn't let her touch Him.”

Suzy: That’s mean!

Dannah: Yes, but here’s the thing: Jesus did know about the muck in her life.

Suzy: That’s what I love about this story. Simon saw the muck in her past. Jesus saw it, too.

Dannah: But Jesus also saw what was growing in her heart.

Suzy: Oh, I see why you’re so excited about your big, orange pumpkin  now, Dannah Gresh.

Dannah: Hmm!

Suzy: What was growing in that woman’s muck pile?

Dannah: Repentance, for one thing. She was sorry for her sin. 

Suzy: Beautiful! This woman wasn’t hiding her sin or pretending it didn’t matter. She brought her broken heart right to Jesus.

Dannah: And Jesus didn’t say, “Oh, your sin wasn’t that bad.”

It was sin. Sin is always bad.

Suzy: But he forgave her; that’s important.

Dannah: Jesus doesn’t look at the muck in our lives and call it good. But when we bring our sin and our broken places to Him, He can grow something good there.

Here’s the thing. I am that sinful woman. I don’t just have a muck pile in my barnyard.

I have had one in my heart when sin piled up. But, repentance grew, and I asked for forgiveness, and Jesus gave it to me. And . . . more good things grew out of that muck because of Jesus.

What I’m saying is this: I think the reason True Girl is reaching so many girls is because 

Jesus grew something beautiful out of my muck pile.

You see, when I was eight years old, I went forward at a special missions conference at my church. I felt like God wanted me to become a missionary or a Bible teacher.

Suzy: How cool!

Dannah: But, then I noticed my muck pile when I was a teenager. It was soooo big.

Suzy: Then, what?

Dannah: I felt like I didn’t deserve to be a Bible teacher or missionary.

Suzy: How sad?

Dannah: Yes, but then I came to Jesus—like that sinful woman—and I confessed my sin and loved Him.

Suzy: Well, look at what God’s done. You are a missionary, because True Girl reaches girls in more than 130 countries. And I do believe that right this very moment you’re being a Bible teacher.

Dannah: I know!

Suzy: I’d say the ministry of True Girl is way more wonderful than that big, orange pumpkin.

[donkey bray]

Dannah: Cassie thinks she deserves some credit.

Suzy: Well, she did plant the pumpkin.

Dannah: In a manner of speaking.

Suzy: It seems like a manner we’ve been trying not to speak about. [giggle]

Claire: True Girl, think about that pumpkin growing in the muck pile. That pile is where the animals leave behind all the dirty, stinky, digested stuff, if ya know what I mean. And yet, somehow, right there in the middle of it, something beautiful grew.

Maybe there are some things in your story that feel a little like that muck pile. Maybe you’ve lied. Maybe you’ve been jealous. Maybe you’ve said something mean or purposely left someone out. Maybe you keep making the same wrong choice and you’re ashamed of it.

Jesus doesn’t look at our sin and call it good. Sin is serious. But just like the woman in Luke chapter 7, we can come to Him even as sinful women and girls. 

First John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 

We can come to Jesus, confess our sin, turn away from it, and ask Him to forgive us. And then, He can begin growing something beautiful where that sin used to be—truth where there were lies, kindness where there was meanness, contentment where there was jealousy.

True Girl, Jesus already knows about the muck. Bring it to Him. Let Him forgive you. Let Him change you.

And, can I pray for you?

Dear Lord, I know what it’s like to feel too ashamed and sinful to come to You, but You tell us that there is always a place in Your arms. We can confess our sin and ask You to forgive us and help us. Thank You for that promise.

For the girl listening today who feels that she can’t come to you, would You help her to trust You? Help her to come to You and show her Your forgiveness. If she needs to confess anything to her parents, would You give her the courage to do that? And, reminder her of Your steadfast love. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Song:

Oh, oh, oh, oh.
I am a true girl.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
I am, I am, I am a true girl!

The True Girl podcast is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ!

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