I am not thrilled with the world celebrating monsters, demons, ghosts, and all types of spirits of destruction. But in some ways I am conflicted in my thinking. For example, I know that there really are demons and worry about our trivializing their existence. On the other hand, I love celebrating the fact that we serve a God that is so much bigger and who has defeated the powers of darkness. Should our kids be walking around pretending to be monsters? I don’t really know. I guess in general, I think of it as harmless. On the opposite side, I think I would have a problem with our kids walking around pretending to be Jesus. That just seems wrong. It’s weird that I have more of a problem with that, though. You’d think that I’d be happy with our kids emulating my Lord. Isn’t that what we want anyway?

I’d love to see our kids dressing up as Bible characters. Wouldn’t it be cool to see a host of Moses or Davids running around. Think of the opportunities to witness when one of their friends ask “Who are you and what’d they do?” Unfortunately, I don’t really see that happening.

My church is hosting a party for the neighborhood kids. We’ve asked the kids to come wearing cartoon character costumes - nothing scary. What makes that okay? I really don’t know and I leave it to my pastoral staff to be much more versed in it than I am.

Even though I have a tough time understanding whether it’s good or bad for our kids to dressing up as various things, I do enjoy seeing them having a great time using their imaginations. May God bless each of them and keep them safe. Maybe we as a church body can learn to share the gospel with them in the process.