When I was a kid, our house was in prime spot for kids to fill their pillowcases with candy.
My dad would usually answer the door (if we didn’t race him there first) and tell the kids to choose 2 or 3 pieces of candy.
The night before, my mom would be up late gluing googley eyes and tiny black, red, white, green, and yellow pompoms to a miniature clothes pin. She would carefully clip them to a tiny children’s tract and place them all in a giant ziplock bag. On the night of halloween my mom would hand the children and teenagers this little clothes pin and tract and tell them about her little creation “Willie the Good News Worm.”
Of course, Willie is a representation of the story of the Gospel. The black represents our sin. It is dark, dull, it leaves a stain that cannot be removed. The red signifies Jesus Christ’s blood—the blood of the innocent One, the blood that washes and purifies, the blood that covered us. The white represents us now— we are clean, we are holy in His eyes, we are no longer stained. The green shows the growth in our lives from that sinful point, the growth from having a relationship with Jesus, the growth we are experiencing now. Last, the yellow foretells of our destiny—that because Jesus died for us and cleaned us and is pursuing us and we are pursuing Him, we have a home prepared for us in the eternal kingdom of glory, the kingdom that will never end, the kingdom where there is no sin and no unholy thing.
As we celebrate this day together and come together as a friendly community, we take on the appearance of our favorite celebrities, heroes, and villains. While there are many fictitious heroes such as Super-Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man, I am reminded of the only real SUPER-hero. The only One who can conquer sin and revive the dead. The only One who creates life. The same One who we can each know and have an intimate, personal relationship with. Jesus Christ, the son of God who was birthed in a dark, smelly cave and placed in an animal feeding trough. He did not wear a red and blue suit so people wouldn’t recognize Him, but instead wore peace and kindness. He was not presented with an award or a crown for His honorable deeds, but was instead given a crude crown made from brambles and piercing thorns. He was not held in awe, but He was executed in the most brutal manner, a manner only fit for barbaric criminals. But when He was executed His movie did not end. There was no rolling credits, no final score, no Oscar awards.
IN THIS ENDING there. is. no. ending.
Because Jesus Christ, the mighty lion and the blameless lamb, rose again from the hands of death. His story still continued and it is and it will always be. So this halloween, remember the real hero and remember that there is always GOOD NEWS.
