A Spring of Joy

Jason Gray at The Rabbit Room wrote a thought-provoking post about Making Peace With Halloween. Here’s a taste:

…these days my guiding conviction is that my job as a co-sanctifier with Christ is to take what is broken and do my part in reclaiming it, perhaps even making it beautiful, by God’s grace. My earlier attempts of disavowing Halloween were neither redemptive nor beautiful. At best they might have been neutral, but I suspect they did more damage than good…

When the twins were little and their hands would get cold, they’d each slip them into my gloved hand to warm them up as we’d walk door to door. It’s one of my most cherished memories of all time. Then I’d stand back as they would timidly take the steps of a neighbor’s house, knock, and with little voices say “trick or treat” and then “thank you”. Taya would stay back at our house to greet trick or treaters, handing out copious amounts of candy (everyone knows us as the “gospel singing family” and she wants to build a reputation of generosity for us. Perhaps she’s also making up for the “lost years”…) Over time it has grown into a Halloween party… you see, these days I’m more interested in reclaiming things and repurposing them than I am protesting.

I love the idea of Halloween as an opportunity to share with your community, to teach generosity to your children, to get to know your neighbors better, to build relationship. I can’t wait to take our children tomorrow, to pass out huge handfuls of candy, to shine our lights bright in the darkness, and to meet the people in our new community. I used to hate Halloween, truly I did… but over the past few years, I’ve grown to love it!

Jason’t post is a long read, but well worth it!