I’ve never been one to jump on the anti-Halloween band wagon. Although it’s never been my favorite holiday. Truthfully, I’ve never understood the whole the “let’s do evil thing.” I have never found death and horror entertaining. But I’ve always sort of kept my mouth shut.
This season, I feel a little different. Now before I get a bunch of emails telling me that playing dress-up and pretend and getting candy isn’t sinful, I know that. But what I also know is that this is a month and a season that the devil gets a free pass. There’s also a lot of Christians that are celebrating darkness with a free pass too.
I won’t be glorifying death this year. I won’t be celebrating the occult. I won’t mock the spirit world.
And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. Deut. 18:10-12
I also won’t dress up like a skeleton, zombie, vampire witch. And you won’t find me at a haunted, chainsaw massacre house either. Let me tell you why.
Death came to my house, in reality. In the past 10 months my life has been consumed with the real horror of death. On this journey, I have connected with hundreds of other moms who are living the same horror. Across the board death isn’t fun. It isn’t entertaining. It isn’t a joke. It is nauseating. It gives us real nightmares. It haunts our waking moments. It has changed us- permanently.
One mom, who shares in the fellowship of this suffering said, “I don’t want my child to be dead, in costume, pretend, or in my reality.”
No, we don’t find the world of horror to be fun. We find it personally revolting. Death is a daily battle I must fight. I fight it because death came to my house under tragic circumstances.
But a greater truth is that death came into the world under the most devastating circumstances. We die because we disobeyed a holy and loving God.
God said, “You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.” Gen. 3:5
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Rom 5:12
That tragedy cost Jesus his life.
At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Mt. 27:45-46
And that tragedy leads to triumph.
For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Rom 5:17
Death shouldn’t be celebrated. The triumph over it should be. One of my friends just said, “Every year we just ignore the day and have it be another day just like any other. But this year our whole week will be about how Jesus defeated death and how God is a God of redemption. We are going to redeem the day and celebrate an entire week of defeating death!”
Isn’t that what it should be about for those of us in Christ? Shouldn’t we be celebrating life and light not darkness and death? That’s what I’m going to be doing. I’m going to celebrate my life in Christ. I’m going to celebrate his victory over death. I am going to do my best to redeem the day and spread his light because without the hope of his resurrection, I’d already be dead.
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12
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