I don’t know if growing up on a farm impacted how much Halloween wasn’t quite as high on the favorite holiday list as it might have been for others at the time. Not as many decorations went up for us, as they would in a couple months. No immediately surrounding houses with ghosts and goblins and skeletons filling front yards and porches. Nevertheless, there was still a process picking out the costume year-by-year, reflecting the interest or fascination or curiosity of that particular stage of life. There might have been more nerdiness reflected than anything else over those trick-or-treating times.
And yet, I like to think that is a blessing that sometimes emerges with this particular holiday: where children are supported and encouraged and cheered on amidst their uniqueness, their different-ness, what makes them…them. So, come this Saturday, October 24 (3:30-5:30pm), our side parking lot will be full of decorated cars, celebrating a time when youth (and even the more life-experienced ones, too) are further welcomed just as they are; because even as we try to say such things on church grounds every other weekend throughout the year, there’s something about this holiday that nudges us to believe and live it more. We’ll support them coming to a space that may be rather different for them (even if there’s a multiple candy reward at the end). We’ll encourage them to believe the space will be just as much for them whenever they return. And even if they don’t, we’ll still cheer them on as a precious child of God that they are through it all.
It may seem rather odd to consider the Gospel being lived out amidst ghosts and goblins and skeletons for this church-shaped All Hallow’s Eve turned more secular Halloween over the years. But maybe God is more than capable of not only working, but loving and empowering the odd and the quirky and the different not just them, but us, too. So, even from the church, happy Halloween!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad