This time of year there is a lot of debate in the Christian community about what a Christian should do, and not do, about Halloween. Way back when, in our pre-Jesus days, we celebrated Halloween. At that time in history we only had Oldest in our home and he was a young guy. I do seem to remember a certain suave Batman costume w/ a super-duper mask adorning his precious little face. I even have a picture of my sweet Soccer Chick as a little infant baby dressed in an adorable Pumpkin costume, alongside her brother who's face was covered in a scary mask. Nice going, Oldest. Good thing she wasn't old enough to know what she was looking at.
Hold on to your seats, my Christian friends, my kids didn't die from participation disease. They survived, without trauma or any lasting negative effects. But their parents became Christians, and that friends, is what changed things. As we grew, our perspective changed. Our senses were widened. It's kind of liking having a stopped up nose, and taking that powerful decongestant. Taking that first breathe to fill your lungs is liberating. Many of the steps on our Christian journey have been exactly like that.
Over our years as a family of faith we have grown to understand the origination of Halloween. And with that new sense of things, we made the family decision that we wouldn't celebrate this holiday the way the world tends to. Before we planted a community church we served as youth leaders at another church. Each year we planned a "Harvest Fest." Many things were familiar: face-painting, bobbing for apples, contests and games. Our rule was that a child can come in costume so long as it isn't anything that wouldn't be pleasing to God. What do you get out of that? Lots of cartoon characters, some Moses and a few angels.
Our community church rents space for services. That leaves us with nowhere to have our own Halloween alternative type thing so over the years we've resorted to finding other local churches sponsoring their own. Our own house rule has been the no costume-buying or dressing-up-in, but this year is also the first year in recent years that the kids have asked for costumes. Since their interest level is up this year, it has me thinking through what is okay, and not okay. The honest answer is each Christian home needs to do what is comfortable for them. Like I said, my kids didn't die from participation when they were little. They wouldn't die if I let them do the typical Trick or Treating now.
For our family, the bigger message IS the bigger message. Understanding the evil roots of this pagan holiday means that we as Christians have to make a decisive stand. You know what they say: stand for something or fall for anything. Our kids are welcome to dress in a costume if they like. So long as it isn't anything scary or evil looking. Nothing that they would be afraid to be facing Jesus in. Soccer Chick put together a nerd costume for her friend's party. Funniest part wasn't the outfit but how she felt it was such a HUGE stretch for her to be such a thing!
What we won't do is the door-to-door trick or treating. Did you know a lot of churches do Trunk or Treats? Congregants line their cars up w/ buckets of candy in their trunks. Lots of kids come in costumes to those. Most of them are appropriate; sometimes you see the bloody faces and scary masks and wonder if their parents knew where they were sending them and why. The more important thing for our family is to send the right message. Just because everyone else does something doesn't mean we have to do it. We don't have to be the odd people either. What we have to do is think through our activities. Does it make sense to do this? What does God think of this? The purpose of the Halloween alternative is to provide an evening of fun without "celebrating" the occasion.
Truth is, all of us are in different places in our spiritual walk with God. Those of us who are Christians against this holiday, let's not be so hard on those folks who celebrate it. A Christian dressed in a costume shouldn't cause us to question his or her salvation. For those of us who can't imagine why Christians are being so silly about something so harmless, let's understand that for a Christian, what God thinks of them and their behavior is very important. Respect for differences is the main idea. Have a good time. Find something fun to do. But most of all, make a wise decision about what you are doing. Be safe, friends! And if you're local to the Western part of Fairfax, we'll be here: http://www.epiphany-herndon.org/news
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