Light in the Darkness
How can we who love the LORD experience October 31st in a way that is spiritually safe and life-giving?
For innocent children, this is the night for dress-up. But the root of this evening originated hundreds of years ago, spooking the spooks by dressing up just like them, in order to trick them from attacking. Such are the beginnings of All Hallows Eve: https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
The Church historically attempted to take this date and make it something more God-centred (much the way it took the pagan date of 25th December and marked it as the celebration of Jesus’ birth centuries before that), marking it as All Saints: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/halloween_1.shtml
Whilst today we can barely ignore the day as children certainly want their sweets, balancing their desires with healthy spiritual encouragement is possible. Churches create events for children as alternatives to trick-or-treat. Parents give their children treats and share the gospel and love of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is superior to any darkness and can be introduced to our children as our comforter. Impersonating dark creatures or even imaginary characters is not necessary to combat evil and in fact walks closely to inviting the “baddies” into our lives. Instead, we can play, pretend, enjoy our imaginations, celebrating the goodness and purity of GOD.
As parents and relatives, loving our children is the core of our ministry. How we best teach them is to navigate the world ourselves, and bring to them the light of Jesus in the darkness; this will prepare them to face the world when they become teens and adults, without fear or shame.
All of us are meant to be in the world but not of it. Prayer not fear or superstition is our starting point.
Personally, I pray protection over all children, plead the blood of Jesus over our own, and ask that the world will recognise evil as unattractive, deceptive and horribly dangerous, In Jesus’ name. Amen. Will you join me?