I love autumn. I love October in particular. It is a month that offers clear blue skies, crisp air, and a color palate that unfolds gradually, signaling the change in season. Even though slowing down is out of the question because fall also heralds the holiday season, it is a time to settle into a different space and rhythm.
October is a time of remembering. Halloween was always a much-anticipated holiday as our children grew up. Yes, I was one of those mothers who made Halloween costumes. One year I made witches’ costumes for our daughter and two of her friends, all different patterns so they could reenact the “double, double, toil and trouble” scene from Shakespeare. Halloween has been that holiday of thinking beyond the ordinary. There are plenty of scary things in life. On Halloween, you dare to face the unknown.
One of my favorite Bible verses is found in Romans 8. Paul is writing to the church in Rome, which he hopes to visit. Because it is located at ground zero of the Roman Empire, those early Christians must have had quite a bit of experience with the force of power. In addition, at that time in the world’s development, the predominant worldview had lots of other-worldly “powers and principalities” (demons and agents of mischief) influencing life on earth in negative ways. There were layers of heavens to get to the divine creatures, and each layer had these creatures whose main job was to interfere with your spiritual well-being. Into this scary world, Paul writes:
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Enjoy October. Enjoy Halloween. Know that whenever life feels scary, NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
Rev. Clara
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