The season of advent is a few short weeks away. While many of us see a 13-day countdown to turkey and all the fixings and a 42-day countdown for Christmas stockings, many of us tend to overlook the liturgical calendar, the calendar based on Jesus’ life and way. The first Sunday of Advent is not until November 29^th this year, but it is worth preparing your mind and heart for such a season now.

Halloween conjures up a variety of pictures and memories for many people, Christians especially. As a child I remember being escorted to our neighbors homes to gather free candy. As I grew older I had clearer memories from going trick-or-treating as a runner, cheerleader, homeless person or a bunch of grapes with friends collecting candy donations in our pillowcases. I recall handing out sweet treats to children who were so shy and sweet in their princess or pirate costumes, one couldn’t help but enjoy the holiday. Innocent families casually dress up like animals and receive candy from their friends while roasting pumpkin seeds, a good memory at the very least. I look forward to the pictures sent of my nephews and niece in their costumes, so cute you want to kiss them and take them home.

Tomorrow is Halloween. I know some people are getting very excited about this holiday. It’s their favorite with pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, costume parties and candy corn (ooh, that’s my favorite). There are others I know who are strictly opposed to all things Halloween because of the negative spiritual undertone is has. Granted, though not necessarily spiritual, there are those moments where you walk in your local drug or convenience store with an innocent 4-year-old only to see the giant display of a hanging skeleton bleeding from the mouth or coming out of a casket. This doesn’t do much for a child’s thought life or feeling of safety. There’s a reason Scripture says, “I will put no vile thing before my eyes.” (Psalm 101:3) If I’m honest, I can hardly handle some of the décor myself. We can’t always get those images out! However, there are positives and negatives to everything and Halloween is no different.

I started my morning at the kitchen table praying. When I was finished I asked God to tell me what He wanted me to reflect on, considering He knew who would be reading this. As I sat talking aloud to a God who is unseen I couldn’t help but giggle. If someone who did not know Jesus were watching me, they’d think I was ridiculous! I was speaking to no one, as far as they knew, and I was getting responses! Picturing the conversation that would follow with the onlooker, I came to the peaceful decision that Christianity is a ridiculous faith that I whole-heartedly believe.

Most of the time we hear this common complaint from young children when one child gets a bigger piece of cake than the other. Maybe as an adult you’ve used this phrase when a co-worker receives a bigger raise than you did last year “and they do half the work.” As parents we use this phrase as a teaching moment for our kids when they complain and our only response that makes sense enough for them to be quiet is to say, “Well honey, sometimes life just isn’t fair.” Is this truth or a myth?

I started paging through the Bible this morning thinking about how much waiting goes on throughout Scripture. People wait on people. People wait on God. God waits on people. There is a lot of waiting. Then I started thinking about how some people don’t have to wait, or maybe some people get to see the things they wait for and others don’t. For those who don’t get to see, there had to be a legitimate reason, right? God is not so frivolous with children as we are that His explanation of these things is simply “life isn’t fair”, is He?