Thought for Today
Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (KJV)
Deuteronomy 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, (KJV)
Matthew 14:26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear.
Luke 24:39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
Today is All Hallows Eve, Halloween. As a Calvinist, I also know today as Reformation Day. But, the burning question in my mind today is, “When did Halloween become one of our biggest holidays?” I don’t know whether or not I just missed the memo, or maybe I slept through the announcement, but this holiday today bears no resemblance to the Halloweens of my youth.
Neither Greta nor I ever had a store-bought costume in which to go trick-or-treating. Neither of us can remember any of our friends having store-bought costumes. Neither of us can remember ever seeing an adult handing out candy wearing a store-bought costume. Yet, this past week NBC ran numerous ads telling everyone to watch the Today show this morning for the ‘costume reveal.’
It’s not just costumes. I never saw a house decorated with anything other than a pumpkin or, at best, a paper skeleton. Admittedly, I did not grow up in relatively close proximity to Salem, Ma. But, for the past few weeks we have driven by numerous houses decked out in orange lights; and, there have been many news segments showing the elaborate yard decorations in local homes. I must have missed that memo; I could not have slept through that big an announcement!
We have seen over our lifetimes a commercialization of many of the holidays and celebrations. Growing up in Texas, Thanksgiving was notable for turkey dinners and the annual UT verses A&M football game. Today, Thanksgiving is mostly noted as the precursor to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Thanksgiving kicks off the buying frenzy leading up to Christmas. Christmas has become an annual contest to see which parents are able to procure this year’s ‘must-have’ present. There have been some attempts to commercialize Easter, so far with only limited success . . . although, it’s still often referred to as the Macy’s Easter Parade. And there are now much more elaborate chocolate eggs and artistically decorated eggs and etc., etc. etc.
This morning, as we wait to see whether or not we will have any trick-or-treaters (none last year), I’m puzzled wondering how a simple holiday where children cobbled together ‘disguises’ from a Lone Ranger mask and toy cap guns has morphed into a major commercial event. In my youth, we only had to decide whether to be a cowboy, a pirate or a ghost. Today there are a plethora of choices, superhero, alien predator, dinosaur, and every imaginable variation.
I often think and write about the wonders of our modern technology and science. Is our fascination with Halloween the result of our having taken away some of the mystery and awe of our world? Is the drive to look like something other than what we really are a rebellion against the tedium of daily life? Were the Harry Potter books and movies so popular because they were set in a world where magic was real, where there were real wizards?
The world of my childhood did have magic. Every Easter the bunny hid eggs in our yard. Every Christmas Santa left presents even though we never had a fireplace. As a child, I never had to worry about where food came from, how the lights always worked, I never had to worry about money in the bank. “1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” Paul left out, ‘I lived like a child, wondered like a child, had the joy of being an innocent, beloved child.’
Tonight, every Halloween night, every Christmas Eve, every Easter reach out to that child you were and recapture the wonder and magic of that childhood world. As Stephen King is fond of writing in some of his novels, ‘that world has moved on.’ It has, but we can still remember and relish that world.
Stay safe, Happy Halloween, trust God,
Pastor Ray