A Bloody Mess

I don’t like this time of year. Oh, it’s not because the temperatures are getting very chilly, or that we know snow is just around the corner. No, the reason I don’t like this specific time of the year is because, unlike the stark contrast of Christmas with its array of multi-colored lights, gift-giving, and beautiful music, these days are filled with ghosts, goblins, darkness, screams, horror movies and scary plots. By the first of the month, yards are decorated with goulish figures, tombstones, and the demonic depiction of death in anticipation of the last day of the month. I’ve had costumed kids knock on my door only to open it to the illusion of a bloody head pierced with a knife or sword. Other costumes depict the end of life or the afterlife with every kind of gruesomeness most often traced in blood.

And so again, as the devil always does, because he has no power to do otherwise, he takes that which God has made good - a religious observance - and perverts it into something evil to get well-meaning people to engage in an agenda of darkness and fear. Of course, it’s only one day of the year, and it’s all in good fun, so what’s the harm?

There is no harm whatsoever in kids dressed as ghosts and goblins, or princesses and Big Bird, knocking on doors for a small token of community spirit symbolized by a snack sized Snickers, candy corn, or a bag of chips.

What is harmful for kids and adults alike is the notion that violent death, demonizing spirits, and the potential haunting of life after death, can be trivialized by horror movies or placated by having the most popular sweet treat house on the block.

Death and dying is serious business. The spirit world is serious business. Teaching kids that fear, terror, and the demonic are to be relished for a good night of chilling screams and horror induced adrenaline rushes is inculcating them with something that is contrary to God’s word and insults his sacrificial death on the cross which was nothing short of a devastatingly gruesome, excruciatingly violent, and shamefully humiliating, bloody mess.

And from that bloody mess comes the truth that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

Have a blessed All Hallows’ Eve.