Ed, my neighbour next door, is so excited Halloween is coming up that he has become obsessed with decorating his yard for the big night. This year he is after the graveyard look. No less than 10 fake gravestones are in two deathly rows of five each in his front yard. From cobwebs covering tree branches and bushes to plastic skulls on each step to his front door to his rows of tombstones, Ed is more than ready for Halloween.
"The grandchildren must be coming for Halloween this year," I said to Ed.
"Absolutely! I'm taking them trick or treating," Ed replied with pure satisfaction.
"Who will have more fun - you or your grandchildren?" I inquired.
"Well, I have to admit they don't make kids like they used to. When I was a kid, we would cover every house in town. Now, my grandkids want to go home after three little blocks. It is hard to get them making ghost sounds, black cat meows and hisses and werewolf howls," Ed said with a clear sigh.
Ed loves Halloween with a great passion. This year, he is dressing up as Frankenstein to accompany his grandchildren trick or treating. I told Ed that a devil's costume might be more his style, which he admits is another one of his favourite ways to dress up. I tend to agree with Ed that for many children Halloween is lots of fun. There is excellent adventure in dressing up and going out trick or treating.
Death is a part of Halloween in that skeletons, skulls, coffins and gravestones are part and parcel of Halloween decorations. Death seems to bother no one Oct. 31 each year.
Yet death, the grave and graveyards make the bravest person timid the rest of the year. The awareness that our own death is at hand is shocking. Learning of the death of a loved one is traumatizing. A gravestone with a name and lifespan on it is informative, but a coffin and a grave are like jail cells without keys. No matter how attractive and well-kept a graveyard or cemetery may be - it is always acres of isolation where the living only visit the dead now and then or not at all. The Bible speaks of death as the last enemy to be conquered.
It may seem that death conquers us rather than us conquering it, but our God is the God of the living. Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." After saying this, Jesus went with Martha and Mary to the tomb of Lazarus, their dead brother, who had been in the tomb four days. Jesus told them to take the stone across the entrance away. When they had, Jesus said, "Lazarus, come out!" Lazarus came out of the tomb alive.
After Jesus' own death, he arose from the dead on the third day, but Thomas, one of his disciples, would not believe it until he touched the nail holes in Jesus' hands and the spear hole in his side. The enemy death is conquered by us through faith in Jesus Christ, for whoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life.
