Boo! Don't be scared.

It seems like the older I get, the more I love the Halloween season.  What is it? New pumpkin everything recipes? My birthday month?  The candy? Pumpkin patches? Enjoying watching my kids dress up in costumes? Or is it that it marks of the start of the whole holiday season and the promise of even better things to come?

Our 5 year old son, Micah is deathly afraid of Halloween stores.  He gets freaked out by the scary masks and faces.  As a matter of fact,he can't even go down the costume aisle at Wal-Mart without clinging to my or my husband's side.  I feel for him but at the same time love it when he finds comfort in the protection of our arms. I cherish that closeness. Those times I can't help but think of ourselves clinging to our abba Father during our own times of fear and uncertainty and how those dark times bring us to a new closeness with our God that we never knew before. 

We may have our own ghosts and monsters in our own life. There are times in our life that may be dark and scary, uncertain.  For me, its my new life of sobriety.  At times, thoughts of past mistakes come to haunt me. 
We may have been hurt in the past making it hard for us to trust or even love again.  But then I remember how God brings me out of those darkest times. It is out of those dark moments that I feel closest to my Abba Father. 

My love for this season also has its roots in my Mexican background and it's tradition of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead.  This is not a Mexican Halloween by all means but a  tradition whose roots can be traced back even further to the days of the Aztecs over 3,000 years ago where skulls were used to honor the dead and used as a symbol of death and rebirth.  It was originally celebrated earlier towards the summer and festivals lasted for a month.  It wasn't until the Spanish colonizers came and in an attempt to 'Christianize' what was thought to be a pagan ritual that it was moved to November 1, 2, the Catholic holiday, All Saints Day.  This is the day it is celebrated throughout the indigenous parts of Mexico today.  It is a day to celebrate loved ones that have passed on, not to mourn them but to honor the lives they lived.  It is to celebrate death as a continuation of life.   Grave sites are visited bringing the favorite food of the deceased.  Songs are sung and games played. Altars are made with photos of loved ones adorned with candles and brightly colored flowers.  Over the years, the holiday has transformed bringing in the 'sugar skull' tradition.  Some wear skulls as masks as a means of 'mocking death'. It is a way of telling death you're not afraid of it.   The sugar skull candies signify consuming death and negative emotions and not letting it consume you.  Today, this tradition has become more of a novelty in the U.S.  However, for me, I must appreciate it as my ancestors did and how so many people of Mexico do today.  That is for the beautiful truths that lie within it. The first is that death truly is a continuation of life.  We don't have to be afraid of it because Jesus already overcame that on the cross.  Remembering our loved ones passed on reminds us to appreciate the lives we live now and the loved ones we have surrounding us today.  God truly is bigger than any ghost, monster or boogie man!    God has brought me out of some of the darkest times.  I have come face to face with some ugly monsters.  Now , I can laugh because God has overcome all of that.  And I know that these are the times I cling closely to God and know an intimacy so comforting and peaceful.   That is why I just grow to love Halloween more. Not for the superficial novelties except please let me enjoy my pumpkin treats.  Not for the scary movies, costumes, monsters.  It is because it reminds me of God's great light tearing through all that scary stuff.  It is a celebration of the deaths in my life--my addiction, past hurts, old habits, lies.   Life gets scary and unexpected spooky goblins may pop up around the corner.  But we have Jesus who is the light, and if we follow Him, we will never have to walk in darkness!  

472 days sober, hopeful for another day.