Become a House of Light this Halloween

We decided to take the opportunity to explore this theme of fear. We wanted to see if the Christian message has anything to offer.

FEATURES AUTOR 263/Nay_Dawson 25 DE OCTUBRE DE 2021 10:00 h

Photo: Nay Dawson.

Halloween is the one time in the year that people knock on your door wanting something from you. And yet as Christians we close the curtains, switch off the lights & tell the kids we don’t believe.

There are so many things that we do engage with and yet Halloween and Harry Potter seem like Christian taboos.

Why do we retreat and run a mile? Why don’t we engage? What has happened to our understanding of Matthew 5?

Read it and remember the simple call of Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

I can’t think of a better time to do this than Halloween.

Instead of streets of silence imagine if thousands of houses lit up this Halloween and offered warmth, generosity and hope?

This year, like last I’m running a Halloween trail in our local community. I’m delighted that 45 families and some local shops are getting involved.

Within an hour of creating a Facebook event over 100 said they were coming along. Its been great to get to know the team and I’m looking forward to growing friendships as we get closer to the event.

As a family we have been thinking through what we want to do. Its been a great chance to sit with the kids and discuss together.

A lot of Halloween focuses on fear, Kids spend weeks preparing their scary costumes and houses are decorated with ghouls and monsters. So we decided to take the opportunity to explore this theme of fear. We wanted to see if the Christian message has anything to offer.

Levels of fear are at an all time high, being a mum of two kids our life feels like one big game of snakes and ladders. At any moment we could get a text home from school to say a child has tested positive for COVID.

The kids are off for a week, all after school clubs cancelled and another week of work goes down the drain. Maybe for you its the general, free floating anxiety and fear thanks to 18 months of lockdowns and isolation.

Or maybe it comes when reading a newspaper article of the impact COVID is still having on all levels of society. In all of this, do we have anything to say to our friends?

1 John 4 says “there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear”. Imagine if friends and neighbours grasped the truth and beauty of these verses. Could it be that this love is what we all need?

As a family we want to raise curiosity about the person of Jesus Christ and we want to give people space to stop and chat. And over time and friendship, we want to communicate something of Jesus’s perfect love.

As Blaise Pascal say make religion attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is”

I’ve written curious stories with my neighbourhood in mind. They’re stories that raise curiosity and interest in the person of Jesus Christ, I’m selling them on my Etsy shop here.

Like last year, we are giving out gift bags which include sweets, glow sticks and one of the curious stories. We are going to be making and giving out spider web candy floss and we’ve got a spider web assault course too!

We’d love you to join us and become a House of Light. Here are five ways to make the most of Halloween…