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A Bright Light Amidst the Darkness
Posted By Kathleen
Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” Mark 9:36-37
Today is Halloween and I am not one who really celebrates this holiday and I certainly do not condemn those who do. I think it is a personal choice each family must make for themselves. Our church has a huge community Harvest Party at the YMCA. After trick or treating the little ghosts and goblins venture into the party and are smothered with the love of Christ, candy, games, food, and so forth. The community loves it because it helps to keep their children safe and off the streets.
But what if you don’t have an alternative or safe activity for your kids to go to? I was recently reading about a family who hid whenever trick-or-treaters came to the door. They made sure the porch light was turned off and pretended to not be at home.
The question of the article was, “What would Jesus have done on this darkest of nights?” Many of us do know the history of the holiday, and it is not a pleasant one and facts are often jumbled throughout time, but we do know Halloween was or is a pagan holiday.
But personally, I think Jesus would have been at the door showering his love on the little ghosts and goblins. I think he would have been out gathering the children and showering his love, grace and mercy upon them. Jesus is the only true light in a darkened world and we as his children are to shine that light upon the world, not hide it.
Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:13-14
I can hear our Lord saying, “Let the little children come unto me”. I can see our Savior standing at the door, hands wide open welcoming the children, hugging them, teasing them and having a great time. I can see him leading some of those children and their families to salvation, to Him.
Whatever your plans for this evening, I pray the love of Jesus shine brightly in your hearts on this darkest of nights.
Oct 31st, 2007
Thank you Kathleen. Wednesdays are our usual night for church mid week service, so we have church tonight. Our Pastor announced that if all the kids want is free candy then they can come to church, then after they get the candy. ;O) Church members will be filling their trunks with candy tonight so the kids can get as much as they’d like. And in our town, church is by far the safest place. There will be no need to get this candy x rayed at the hospital. Which is where the long line will be tonight. Sad that people would even take that risk of taking candy from strange doors.
Thank you for this post. There are so many Christians who focus only on the fact that this is a pagan holiday. I feel exactly as you do I do not celebrate the holiday but I do welcome the little children in my neighborhood who come to my door for treats. I find it is a nice way to say hello to the parents and have a brief little conversation with them. My only problem is my dog barks every time the doorbell rings! Other than that I so totally agree with you that we are to let the love of Jesus shine to others on this day.
What a beautiful attitude you have and how blessed are your children to learn from you. How church also has “Trunk-or-Treat”, and it is such a fun, safe time for the darling children, so sweet and innocent.
I am blessed to be the “Grammie” to 3 beautiful little daughters of our Heavenly Father, a role I take very seriously, and I am very thankful for good women such as yourself who support raising our children/grandchildren in righteousness.
Hope you have a beautiful day.
I think (hope) only we adults know the origin of Halloween lies in pagan ritual. As much as it hurts to say this, it’s like Christmas I think. So many people have forgotten what the true origin of Christmas is that I can only hope they also forget the origin of Halloween.
How anyone can get so caught up in the commercialism of Christmas that they forget why we celebrate it, is beyond me. But I’m actually thankful that Halloween has become, for the most part, simply a holiday that children enjoy. I hope my grandson never finds out where it originated. I simply want him to enjoy dressing up in his costume and having a fun night.
I hope I said that right. To forget the meaning of Christmas is sad. To forget the meaning behind Halloween is a blessing. I love this post, Kathleen.
We do “Light the Night” on Halloween. The biggest point is to welcome and receive trick-or-treaters and their parents, almost as a reverse door-to-door evangelism. One essential component is to make your house and yard bright… light it up. Our church sponsors us and they supply halogen flood lights, hot dogs, hot chocolate, tracts, prizes and carnival games (including inflatable bounce houses and such!)… It’s like a mini-carnival right in their backyards, with games and prizes.
We have literally 8 feet of yard space, so we don’t do a carnival. We have a large porch, so we set up there. We tell people that on a night of darkness, we are celebrating God’s light. Sometimes, I’ll say we’re turning the night upside down. We choose not to give candy. We offer on-the-spot consumable food: hot dogs, hot chocolate and popcorn. This year I baked cookies as well. It causes people to hang out at least a bit while they eat or drink, which allows for relationship building. We give tracts for their bags, and our church used to supply us with a 10-minute cassette tape on “How to Have a Relationship with God”. We used to try to put one in each family’s bag. Sometimes we have brought a TV out and played Veggie Tales, other times we play modern christian music that would interest pre-teens and teens. When we have additional people helping, we’ll have them read “The Pumpkin Parable” to some of the kids… it’s a story about how we are like jack-o-lanterns… God opens us up, scoops out all the yucky stuff, and places his light inside us so we can shine. Some years, we invite kids to come back at the end and climb on our 10 foot climbing wall in our attic (with a harness and rope). One year, we let a mom come in and sit in the living room to nurse her hungry, cold, crying baby. She was so blessed by it!
We’ve been doing this for six years now, and the neighborhood loves it. We get to bless about 250 people each year, giving out 90-100 hot dogs and 2-4 gallons of hot chocolate. The teens and preteens come back at the end of the night to hang out on our porch, eat our leftovers and sort through their candy. It’s all a part of a larger effort on our part to build relationships with the kids and teens in our neighborhood. They all respect us immensely, and they are ever-so-nice to our toddler and preschooler (I have no bullying worries for my kiddos…at least not in the neighborhood).
You could do this so easily yourselves. This year our church didn’t supply as much stuff… we buy our own and submit receipts. We did borrow a large drink dispenser for the hot chocolate, and the 2 halogen lights. But for 250 people, we spent less than $100 on 90 hot dogs & buns, napkins, condiments, two 54-serving containers of hot chocolate mix, popcorn (for our air-popper) and 250 tracts.