The irony of children begging for candy

On Wednesday nights we have a Bible study and dinner with friends of ours. It’s something we all very much look forward to each week. This past week was no different – except for the fact that it was halloween [and Reformation Day, too, by the way]. And our friends live in a quaint neighborhood in the old part of town with streets named after each letter of the alphabet… house after house, alley after alley all neatly ordered over a hundred years ago. Lots of houses like that mean lots of ‘trick-or-treaters’ on that night. Our friend wanted to have us to there home instead of them coming to ours for that night so that he could talk to the beggers trick-or-treaters when they came to the door which, he knew, they inevitably would. It was a good time to

Isn’t it just ironic and silly that once a year children walk the streets in the dark and tap on stranger’s doorbells and beg for candy say trick-or-treat and expect to be treated with candy? Isn’t it just goofy bizarre that all the other days of the year, [we] parents tell children not to go out after dark or not to take candy from strangers (you never know what might be in there!) and not to beg for things from people – let alone strangers! And we tell them be real, don’t be insincere, candy’s not so good for you, don’t wear masks, don’t eat too many sweets, don’t be greedy — be kind to people don’t trick them — be authentic! And then one day a year that whole mantra is (seemingly) tossed out the window and is (probably) replaced with: be careful, watch for cars, stay in a group, say thank you and on and on. Still… going to homes of total strangers with the candy container (or the preferable pillow case), begging for candy to add to a whole mess of candy they begged received from other homes they had just come from. As an aside, I wonder, from the homes of local dentists, do children receive sticky candy or floss, toothpaste and toothbrush packets? I’m just thinking.

I still remember, probably 40 years ago, going from house to house… begging for more candy. I remember being thrilled and scared at the very same time. I remember avoiding the homes of the bad boys and being fearful of who might jump out of the bushes – but still thrilled for more candy and pushing aside fear, I would make the rounds of the neighborhoods. I won’t say things are different now than they were then – because they aren’t. Things were not sweet then and ugly now — but I will say, I do see things differently now than I did then. And it’s not only bcz we have children / grandchildren of our own now.

I think a lot of people have come into this same revelation of Truth and have questioned some of the so-called ‘innocent fun’ things of life, theme parks, movie characters and ‘children’s toys’ — that there really is darkness, there is a very, very dark side — and to these things there are consequences. I marvel over the these things… there is no good magic or there is white magic and black magic and we just stay away from black magic. That’d be sort of like saying there’s good evil and bad evil… we do the good evil but we stay away from bad evil. Evil’s evil – ‘good’ or bad… but the enemy sure likes to dress evil up and make it look ‘okay’ doesn’t he? Or any other bad thing… made to appear as ‘light’ — but is not.

Just another day of thinking about things. And writing them down.

But then, reality…
I need to get ready to go to our neighbour’s birthday party. It’s very important. He’s three after all.