Well we’ve almost reached another Halloween – the season that wants to frighten us in so many different ways. What’s the scariest part of Halloween for you? Creepy movies, dreadful masks, or terrifying haunted houses? But do we really need any more scary stuff during the year 2020?!?!? In a time of pandemic, racial unrest, fires, and even murder hornets a haunted house seems like piling on. Plus, don’t even get me started on those election mailers and television ads – it’s enough to make me close my eyes, plug my ears and scream!
I’ve been thinking about these scary times in the context of our theme for this school year “No Fear” based on Isaiah 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” I don’t know about you, but what I long for these days is peace. In a time of strife, uncertainty, illness, political conflict, and more I just yearn for peace and quiet and tranquility. Where on earth am I supposed to find that (particularly when I live with a 10-year-old boy)? There is one place we can always find peace though – in our Savior Jesus. I cling to his words found in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” This world can seem like a terrifying place sometimes whether it’s Halloween or not. But I find rest and have no fear because God’s peace is inside me – and nothing this world can do can take that away.