I remember it like it was yesterday. Samuel, my seven-year-old son pranced around ready to put on his Halloween costume.
“Mom, can I put it on now? Please, can I Mom?”
“After dinner.”
Pizza, the fast and easy meal had become the Halloween tradition for my son and me.
As soon as we ate, Samuel raced to his bedroom, put on his scary costume and grabbed his bag.
“Honey, you understand you can only go in our circle of condos where I can see you.”
“I will, Mom. I promise.” And with that, he swooshed out the door.
Samuel stayed within the boundaries. While I wanted to keep an eye on him, I also wanted to give candy to any little treat-seekers who ventured our way.
When Samuel returned, the look on his face clawed into my heart.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
He threw his empty trick-or-treat bag on the sofa.
“Nobody came to the door.”
That was one of those “Mommy Moments” I didn’t know how to handle. My heart cried.
Why didn’t anyone come to the door?
We were new to that city, so I wasn’t comfortable driving him around to strangers’ houses. We did the next best thing I could think of. We hung out together and watched a movie.
Years passed. Times changed. Halloween changed. My son grew up.
There was a lot of emphasis about Halloween beginning as a pagan holiday. Sometimes, Christians were urged not to participate.
I kept asking: So, God, What Should We Do about Halloween?
Brian and I lived in a neighborhood where we expected a lot of little children. What should we do?
We finally figured it out. We turned off the lights and hid out from those little pumpkins. We could hear the muffled voices of the children and their parents talking and laughing as they traipsed down our street in search of treats.
Brian and I remained silent. Our house remained dark.
Was Hiding in the Dark on Halloween Night the Right Solution?
No! Absolutely not!
It bothered both of us.
I could still feel the disappointment in my son when no one opened the door for him so many years ago. Now, I don’t want to be the one who disappoints other little children.
Besides that, the Bible tells us …
“… You are to influence them, not let them influence you!” Jeremiah 15:19 (TLB)
Clearly, we had not influenced anyone hiding in the dark.
Another year passed. More prayers.
Again, Brian and I prayed about how to handle Halloween.
“God, how do you want us to handle this holiday? I believed Halloween was like a children’s holiday where parents and children in the neighborhood had fun together. But now, is our participation condoning something evil? I don’t think so. God, please guide us.”
After our prayers…
God Gave Us a Halloween Plan!
We went to the stores and bought little goodie bags and lots of candy. Then we purchased little Christian brochures to put into the bags. We picked out the best ones we could find for little children.
In advance, Brian and I packed our candy and brochures. We decorated our door with a fall wreath and placed a straw doll and talking pumpkin close to our basket of goodies. We flipped on the lights. We were ready to welcome Halloween!
Since we began our Halloween ministry, we’ve lived in several different states. In the past eight years, we’ve had approximately 750 children come to our door and receive their treat bag. There is no other holiday where Brian and I give out so many tracts about Jesus.
These brochures have the potential to be little seeds for Jesus-maybe hundreds of them as they add up year after year.
”Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow — perhaps it all will.” Ecclesiastes 11:6 (TLB)
Now It’s Your Turn. How Will You Handle Halloween?
11 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb[a] of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
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