Every year pumpkin carving gets a little more complicated. This year Ivy asked for an astronaut, to go with her costume. Phoebe wanted a pirate, but added difficulty by declaring it must be a girl pirate (I thought pumpkins were gender neutral). So carving requires a bit of creativity and a bit of luck – after all we do not buy practice pumpkins. More than anything it requires imagination. Not by me, but by my girls. And every year my girls do not disappoint. They are amazed at the spaceman and rocket ship. They love the braid I cut into girl pirate (using real hair clips). Any art studio would consider my work compost. But my girls see masterpiece.

In this life it is easy to become the critic. Our neighbors – the people we encounter everyday – are full of all kinds of silliness. Sometimes just irritating idiosyncrasies, but other times obvious sin. Like an art critic, we see mistake upon mistake. When judged everyone is lacking. But to make people compost forgets the cross.

How does Christ see our neighbor? I think like my girls he does not see what is, but what should be. And through his eyes our neighbor becomes a masterpiece of creation – a child of the King. And so do we.