Today is the big Halloween party where I am working as a temp through the end of the year. It seems the entire office loves Halloween and the decorations have been building up all month. Some of them I like, the gourds and mini-pumpkins are nice. They remind me of harvest and the need to be thankful. Then there are the skulls with black roses blooming out of them, skeletons, witches and the like. I have a hard time with those kinds of things. When someone asked me why, I told them it is because they are so “dark.” There is enough “dark” in this world without my adding to it.
One of the marvelous thoughts in the beginning chapter of Colossians is about our rescue from the darkness. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” [Col 1:13-14 NIV]
God has, past tense, rescued His beloved from the dominion of darkness that abounds in this world. We were born into this dominion. It rules. One only has to look around to see that darkness surrounds and darkness demands its way.
But God. God provided the rescue from this dominion. Through the “Son he loves,” the Father brought redemption, forgiveness of sins, and the transfer from darkness to light, from death to life. Being a child of light, a resident in the kingdom of the Son who is Light and Life is the chief reason why I dislike the world’s celebration of darkness–Halloween. I don’t want to return, even for a day, to darkness’ dominion.
Father, thank you for rescuing me. Thank you for redemption and forgiveness for my sins. Thank you for taking me out of the darkness – and for taking the darkness out of me! Thank you for making me a citizen in the kingdom of the Son You love, Christ Jesus, my Lord.
