When I found out my baby was due on October 24, 2017, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Phew,” I thought. “At least he won’t be born on Halloween and there’s a whole week between his birthday and Halloween so that he won’t have to have costume parties for the rest of his life.” 

On October 28, in a deeply uncomfortable state, being 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant, I went to the doctor and made a plan to get induced on October 30. This worked for me because at least it was a day removed from Halloween, so again, he wouldn’t have to have costume birthday parties for the rest of his life.

We started the induction process on October 30 in the morning, and at 12:00 am on October 31, after hours and hours of labour, my doctor announced that it was time to push. Looking at the time on the clock, I decided that I would rather wait a day and have the baby on November 1. Apparently that’s not an option when you’re in active labour though, so after a straight-talking from the delivery doctor, I agreed that perhaps we should go ahead with the delivery.

At 3:27 am on October 31, 2017, our precious boy, Theo, was born into the world. I was honestly shocked – I was certain we were going to have a baby girl. But the funny thing is, I don’t know why I was so sure. Months earlier, in July of 2017, I had awoken from a dream where I knew God was telling us to name our baby, “Theo.” I looked up what it meant, and it meant, “God-given.” … And that’s exactly what Theo was and is. We found out we were expecting Theo after a Wednesday night at youth where both my husband, Mark, and I were serving as leaders. The topic that night was laying our desires and requests before God, and the pastor said, “Maybe you don’t have what you long for because you haven’t even thought to ask God for it yet.” With that, I wrote the word, “baby” on a piece of paper and left it at the foot of the cross.

That February night, two faint pink lines showed up on a pregnancy test. There he was – our God-given baby boy, Theo. 

I remember that whole day after having Theo at the hospital being really confusing … I was running on no sleep, a piece of toast, and the adrenaline that comes after meeting the little human that was just hours earlier on the inside of my belly, now holding him on the outside. The nurses who kept coming in to check on me were wearing costumes, and I remember not knowing why because I had totally forgotten that it was Halloween. The only thing that mattered was this little boy and the fact that he was finally here.

As I looked into his little blue eyes and his hair-covered head and saw his tiny fingers and toes crinkle and squirm, a thought occurred to me … Here I was, so worried that he would be born on Halloween because I didn’t want him to be associated with a day that celebrates death and evil … and yet as I reflected, his birth and the timing of his birth seemed very intentional. Almost as if God designed it that way. I realized that even on the darkest of days, the days that satan would very much like to claim for his own, God is still bringing forth life. 

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

As believers, we don’t have to be afraid of the darkness, because we know that Jesus has already won the battle. We also know that we have been invited to join Him in the renewal of all things, and sometimes that means bringing light into dark places. For me, Theo’s birth reminds me that satan does not have the final say. The world may sometimes look like a pretty dark and scary place, full of death and destruction … but Theo was not the first baby boy sent to light up a dark night … Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection changed everything for us.

Because of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, we don’t have to back away when we see evil at work in our world … it’s permission to charge ahead, covered in the armour of God (shoutout Ephesians 6), banded together, and discover how God is lighting up the night. He is bringing light where there was darkness, and life where there was once death.

Often this time of year, we see skeleton “decorations” on peoples’ front yards. This year, instead of turning our heads the other way, or spiraling and thinking about the darkness of our world, we want to think of them as dry bones that need someone to prophesy over them. In Ezekiel 37, we read:

“As I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'”So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.” (Ezekiel 37:7-10)

The world is full of dry bones, waiting to have their hope restored and breath breathed into their lungs. Satan wants the skeletons to stay dead; the bones to stay dry. How will the world know that there is a God who breathes life into them…if we cross the road at the sight of a Halloween decoration or hide in our basements with the lights off whenever children come knocking at our doors on October 31?

We have been invited, as people of God, to bring life into places that were once death, light into places that were once dark.

A few weeks ago, Theo astutely asked me, “Mum, why does every other holiday, like Christmas and Easter, have mascots that have nothing to do with the actual holiday, but Halloween doesn’t?” I thought about it … he was right. Christmas had Santa, Easter had the bunny—even Valentine’s Day had Cupid and St. Patrick’s Day had a leprechaun.

The only one that didn’t have a specific mascot was Halloween. It occurred to me that Halloween is the only holiday that satan doesn’t want to distract us from. He loves that all the attention is directly and obviously on him for one day of the year. I was astounded at how subtle and yet NOT subtle this plan of satan’s was. I was also deeply encouraged that my little God-given boy pointed this out to me. It was so obvious when I thought about it—I had just never thought about it. 

For our family, we are intentional about making our home a place that feels safe for the neighbourhood kids to gather. I feel like every neighbourhood has “the house” where kids gather, and by God’s grace, it’s our house. It’s not unusual for kids to let themselves in and raid the fruit bowl for a snack. On Halloween, because it’s Theo’s birthday, all the neighbourhood kids gather at our place, and we all go trick-or-treating together.

We know there are lots of houses that have scary decorations set up, so we intentionally make sure that our porch feels warm and welcoming. We leave the lights on, a few pumpkins on the step, and a bowl of candy. As a family, we pray that God would protect us and cover us as we go and that we would be His light in the darkness. We walk around the neighbourhood and talk with the other parents while our kids run ahead to each house to collect candy.

We have fun with our costumes, too. Because it’s Theo’s birthday, we always let him pick the theme for all of our costumes (although his little sister, now 4, has her own opinions about her costume choice). I know that many people might see dressing up as participating in Halloween festivities, but I think it’s important to use discernment and discover where the good is in everything. The reality is we live in a world that is broken by sin, and so we always (not just on Halloween) have to discern the good from the bad.

For our family, we see that dressing up in a costume (not a scary one, to be sure) can be a lot of fun! Our kids have amazing imaginations, so they often wear their costumes around the house and neighbourhood for weeks leading up to Halloween, playing with all of their friends (who are also in their costumes, by the way). When we all dress up as a family, it is a good reminder for Theo that his family loves and honours him and his interests.

We go into dark places because that’s what Jesus did, and what Theo’s birthday reminds us to do. We aren’t willing to give satan even one day … October 31 belongs to God, just like every other day.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1)