Makes no sense

Ok, I'm going to say it.  Hang on to your witch hats.  Here goes.  I. Hate. Abhor. Halloween.  There.  It's out there now and I feel so much better!  I'm sure relieved to know one of my deep, dark secrets.  Not sure how I got to this point in my life though.  It's been a slow fade to the "other side" of the Halloween spectrum.

I love autumn!  Love the cool fall weather and the color of the leaves and sweaters.  But I cannot stand that Halloween marches in and stomps on my autumn loving mood. I went trick-or-treating as a kid.  I dressed up.  I anticipated what I was going to be the next year on Nov. 1.  I remember those days.  Then sometime around the age of 11 or 12 I just grew out of it and now as an adult I cringe at the thought of Halloween coming up around the corner.  I love candy!  What is wrong with me?  I think God has slowly come into my heart over the years and just taken out those things that are frivolous and meaningless and that I showed no glory to Him while being involved in it.  

My dog had firecrackers lit underneath her during a Halloween prank when I was young and every Halloween, July 4th, firecracker worthy party or bad thunderstorm after that was a nightmare for her.  She died running away from home during a lightning storm.  Tragic.  But that's about how I feel about this morbid holiday.  I just want to run.  I close my door, turn off my light and eat candy in the dark of my own little abode.

Why is it such a loved holiday?  Why is it economically right behind Christmas in sales?  I mean, on it's heels, right behind?  Why do people spend so much money on Halloween?  Maybe that's it for me.  Sometimes during the year it's couch searching time for milk money and seeing how people "budget" for their Halloween expenses makes me nauseous.  And what lesson is in it for our children.  I mean, really.  Have you been in one of those pop-up Halloween stores?  Throughout most of that place I have to shield my daughter's eyes so that she doesn't see that stuff.  Not the scary stuff, the other "adult costumes".  What in the world are people doing on Halloween anyway?!  My daughter begged to go trick-or-treating when we moved into an actual neighborhood.  I made her brothers take her.  I refused to buy a costume so she wore her army outfit her uncle had bought for her for three years in a row.  Then it stopped.  She found no fun in it anymore.  "Can't we just go buy candy at the store Mom?  Then I don't have to go out in the cold."  Smart girl.  Don't judge me.  I don't feel bad about handing down my apathetic attitude about Halloween to her.  I just don't.

Look, I'm weird.  I know this about myself.  I am destined to be a lonely old lady with no friends and family because of my beliefs.  Now, I love me some fall festivals or All Saints Day parties where you play fun games and eat things made with apple and pumpkin and cinnamon!  So, this year, it's no heartbreak for me that I am leaving town on Halloween and won't have to make sure my light is off on the porch to signal the "I don't have any candy to give you" to the local kids looking to score big in the neighborhood.

So, I don't know why I felt the need to write this post.  Because what's really on my heart today is how Jesus prayed for us before he was arrested and crucified!  I know, completely random.  The two don't even relate to each other conceptually!  But, really, did you know that Jesus did that?  And he took the time out of his last day of freedom to pray for us.  It always humbles me to think about it.  It makes me cry reading the scriptures.  How he cried and prayed and tears of blood fell from his eyes and the pores of his skin.  What would you be doing in the last days of your life if you knew you were about to die?  I'd want to not sleep.  I'd want to spend it with those I love memorizing every feature and telling them how much I love them.  I am amazed that Christ prayed for me before I even believed in Him, before I was born, before I was in the womb, before, before, before.  Wow. 

It's the whole chapter of John 17 and I encourage you to read it, like, now.  But here's just the last verse to give you a little taste:

²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

I pray for you today.  I pray that you do take time to read about Christ's sacrifice of His life for yours.  I pray that you realize how he sacrificed his last minutes to pray for you.  I also pray that I will spend more of my time praying and thinking about those things that are important to God instead of wasting my time blogging about things I don't like.......gotta go!