I must admit that I very much enjoy Halloween. Walking on the creepy side, dressing up as something we wouldn't be in ordinary life, and playing with our fears rather than running from them is all appealing to me. Yes, I am a full-fledged Christian and yes, I fully enjoy celebrating Halloween.
That said, any way that I can find to further teach about Christ and His values to my children is fantastic. And when the world celebrates and I can use that celebration to turn my children's thoughts towards the Lord, I say great! So I was very happy to find this illuminating (pun intended!) story about walking with Christ and Jack-O-Lanterns. Here is the story:
Once there were three little pumpkins (point to them). The first pumpkin (point to the pumpkin without a face) said, “I want to remain just as I am. I never want to change.”
The second pumpkin (point to the pumpkin with a drawn-on face) said, “I want to be a jack-o-lantern, but I don’t want to let go of what I already have. I want to change but I’m afraid to let anyone carve eyes, nose and a mouth out of my shell. So I won’t change either.”
The third pumpkin (point to the carved pumpkin) said, “I want to shine like the sun and in order to let the light come out of me, I need to lose part of myself. I need to change. Open my eyes, ears, nose and mouth and put a lit candle inside me. (Take the lid, set a lighted candle inside and take out the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
The pumpkin wanted to become a jack-o-lantern, even at the cost of losing some of itself. And so, the light shone out of its eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The light of the third pumpkin, together with the light of all the other jack-o-lanterns, made the night become brighter than day. And darkness went away forever.
I found this story at Suite101, where you can also find a wonderful pumpkin prayer. I have put a pumpkin with our table centerpiece and we now say this prayer daily for the season.
Happy Halloween Season!
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