We are 13 days away from Halloween. Every year when the Halloween stuff hits the stores and yards, I make the same decision – I hop right over Halloween and go straight to Thanksgiving.

What I always notice about this holiday is the atmosphere of darkness. There is so much blackness. Even the celebrating is done at night, after the sun has set. To me, there is enough darkness in this world that creating more (or dressing our children in it) troubles my soul.

As a believer, I am a child of light. I hate the darkness of this world that manifests itself in the ways we treat each other, in arrogance, and greed, in power struggles, hatreds, and prejudices. Evil loves the dark where it thinks it can remain hidden and its sins can have free reign.

As believers, we no longer live in darkness. “You are all [children] of the light and [children] of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” [1 Thessalonians 5:5]

Paul reminds us instead to thank our Father God “who has qualified [us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 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.” [Colossians 1:12-14]

My heart and my soul are forever grateful to God for the light of His Son. I never – EVER – want to abide in that darkness again. Thank you, Precious Savior! Amen & Amen`