Dear members and friends of Napa UMC,
What fun we had at church on Thursday and Friday! The children who attend the nursery school in our building came by the office dressed for Halloween, and Dianne Mahler had a box full of stuffed toys dressed in Halloween costumes for each one of them. It was a bittersweet moment for Dianne, since this will most likely be the last Halloween before the nursery relocates to make room for our Workforce Building project.
Growing up in Kenya, where there was no Halloween, I still remember my first encounter with the celebration as a freshman at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Coming from a conservative, fundamentalist Christian background, I was shocked and didn’t know what to make of it! Years later, after giving birth to my American son in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I began the adventure of motherhood, which included shopping for a Red Power Ranger costume one year and a ninja costume the next. In the meantime, I began trying to fit the lessons of Halloween into my reflections.
These past few weeks, I’ve done what I do every Halloween: I’ve been paying attention to the decorations—skeletons in the yards, ghosts in the trees, women in black driving a stick, and lawns transformed into cemeteries. Next door, there’s a twenty-foot green wizard whose smile is suspicious.
As every Halloween, I’ve been wondering whether this holiday gives us a way to dare to look at our fears. So, I’ve been taking prayer walks in the neighborhood. And on Monday morning, I found myself chuckling at the giant green wizard. He is designed to look fearsome, but truth be known, he is made of hot air. I imagine one jab with a safety pin could bring him tumbling down with a hiss.
That thought doesn’t make the real dangers disappear. It doesn’t make violence harmless or injustice unreal. But it reminds me that fear can grow larger in the shadows. Some things that loom over us are not as powerful as they seem. And even when a danger is real, it doesn’t have to become the only thing we can see.
It seems to me that this is the gift of juxtaposing Halloween with All Saints Sunday: celebrating all the saints, past, present, and future. It also seems appropriate that the season of Halloween allows us to tremble with fear before our church budget—and then, with small but steady steps of faith, journey toward a bright future. And of course, the “safety pin” called “Vote” can tumble the fear of the hot air of -isms and -phobias.
2026 Halloween Prayer
Fearless God,
It’s Halloween again, and the fears we harbor within
seem to be on full display in the neighborhood.
The horrors of Ukraine, Gaza, and the DRC;
The fear of what the elections could bring;
The anxiety of a diagnosis
And the terror of a loss that still makes life hard to navigate..
Lord, you know these fears are not make-believe.
They are not only costumes, shadows, or stories
They are real, and they are about real people who are wounded.
God of courage,
A Red Ranger, Spider-Man, a Princess, and a Pirate
will walk through the neighborhood
ringing doorbells without knowing exactly who will answer,
but trusting that someone might open the door
and offer them a stuffed pumpkin dressed like spider
Lord, as I walk through life’s Halloweens of illness, crisis, or loss.
teach me to carry the children’s sense of Halloween
Help me meet uncertainty without letting fear lead me.
Remind me that I am clothed in your love
and that I do not walk alone.
even as I walk through the valley of the shadows
you are with me armed with a large safety pin.
So give me courage to keep going,
And to keep looking and expecting welcome,
And offering welcome to strangers.
Amen.
Prayerfully,
Grace
(You have Grace’s permission to share her prayer)
