Parable of the pumpkin?

This afternoon Harmony and I worked on carving the pumpkins she and Henry picked last weekend. It was the perfect opportunity to talk about the Parable of the Pumpkin with her...the conversation was more comical than spiritual, though!

Me: Harmony, did you know you're like a pumpkin?
H2: Uh uh!
Me: God is the farmer, and you're a pumpkin! He chose you from the garden.
H2: I am NOT a pumpkin. I'm not orange, and my hair is yellow. I don't have a green stem.
Me: Yup, he picked you from the garden and cleans all the yuckky stuff out of you.
H2: Is He going to cut me open?
(I pull out some pumpkin guts)
H2: Ew. I'm not a pumpkin, I don't have gooey stuff and seeds in me.
Me: What kinds of bad stuff might Jesus clean out of you?
H2: Blood? Germs?
Me (sighing inside): God cleans the sins out of you.
H2: Oh. I don't have guts like that pumpkin.
Me: Yup, God cleans you out,, and puts His light in you to shine to other people.
H2: I'm not a pumpkin. I don't have seeds.

Sigh...she's too much of a literalist to "get it" right now.

So when Henry came home, I asked him the same question:

Me: Henry, do you know you're like a pumpkin?
H1: Yes! God chose me from the garden, cleaned out my sins and puts His light in me to shine for him.

So we've determined that it's sometime between age 4 and 6 when a kid can handle a parable...



(In case you were wondering, Henry carved the bottom one himself; the next one is a cat, the next one is an unfinished Darth Maul, and the top one is Tinkerbell).