Trick or Treat

True confession: I love Halloween. I personally love dressing up, and I love handing out candy to small-ish humans dressed in their favorite costumes.

Tiny princesses and Jedi.

The latest superhero.

The true nerds who love to pick the most obscure costume they can dream up, even if only a few people ever “get it.”

Big lumbering teenagers dressed in a “this is my costume” t-shirt hoping there is candy for big kids too.

I especially love family costumes where every person dresses up thematically.

I love them all.

I have heard people complain about kids being “too big” or forgetting to say “trick our treat.” But I have none of those hang ups. If you come to my door on Halloween, I am going to give you candy no matter what you’re wearing or what you feel brave enough to say.

I’ve spent much of the last few months hoping with all my might that the 2020 curse doesn’t stop Halloween this year. Every year on October 31, I wait eagerly for the first signs of darkness so I can start the candy-giving.

Each year you will find my boys and I sitting on our front porch early, dressed in our favorite costumes, waiting when the first trick-or-treaters show up.

Oh, and then there is the issue of candy purchases. Y’all, I have no willpower when it comes to seasonal candy. Can anyone tell me why a Reese’s tastes better when its shaped like a pumpkin?

Every year, I buy far too much candy, and although I only buy candy we like, I always have so much left over that we are still eating it after the new year. It is a serious thing in our house.

my kids came out of the womb dressing up

Cole, around 4 years old, wearing his new cape that his cool Aunt Mary gave him

one of our family costumes - Doctor Who characters

I am the 11th doctor, Caleb is the 10th Doctor, and Cole is the Empty Child

So, I had this thought today…because weird thoughts come to me randomly.

I think Halloween is a beautiful picture of grace.

What!!! Renae, don’t you know there are entire sections of Christianity that believe Halloween is evil?

Yep, I do. And I still stand by my hypothesis.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us about effective prayer. He reminds us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. And then Jesus reminds us that if we, as humans, know how to give our kids good gifts, how much more must God delight in giving to us. Eugene Peterson in The Message says it beautifully: “Don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?” (Matthew 7: 7-11)

God loves to give us good gifts. And God is always waiting to reveal God’s own goodness so that we can marvel and delight.

So often, we think prayer has to follow a certain formula - it needs to look a certain way to be accepted. We have this tendency to think we should only “bother” God with the big, important things - sometimes we only ask for the things we can’t figure out how to do for ourselves.

But I think God delights in generously giving to us. God gifts us daily with things beyond our wildest imagination -

a colorful array of gorgeous autumn leaves,

vivid orange and pink sunsets,

the first cool breeze of autumn,

sticky kisses and sleepy cuddles,

a friend who calls just when we need it most,

a good night’s sleep and a hot cup of coffee in the stillness of morning before the family awakes.

I’m not sure I always recognize these things as gifts - sometimes I expect them as rights - but I am on a journey to see through new eyes.

So now I have begun imagining God waiting at the door, candy basket full to overflowing.

God, eagerly anticipating the first signs of us, standing in our best costume with our pumpkin buckets out, knowing that goodness is coming our way.

God, ready to give us good things whether we know how to ask or not.

But I also think our job is to come, with eyes wide open. It doesn’t take special language. We don’t have to look a certain way. We are simply to come and ask. We are simply to see and notice.

What is your favorite Halloween costume and candy? What good gifts have you noticed this week? How can you be more attentive to the gifts God gives every day?