C-Kers Online 8

It’s that time of the year again, as the nights draw in that we witness the evening we call Hallowe’en. It’s all about ghosts, witches, pumpkins, skeletons and evil goo. So where did this bizarre night of the year come from? Glen Scrivener explains.

As Glen says in his video, Hallowe’en is something that the church used, not to promote things of darkness, but to announce that God brings light in to the darkness of everything that’s wrong in the world. And most of all this was shown through Jesus coming into the world. He is described in John chapter 1 as the light shining in the darkness.

Jesus told a parable that involved the night time and light. It was about a wedding that for some reason was going to occur at night-time but the bridegroom was running late in getting there. The tradition in this country is that the bride is usually late! It was going to be a grand wedding and ten bridesmaids were chosen. These were days before torches or mobile phones with lights on them. They each had small oil lamps, that needed a supply of oil to run them. Five of the bridesmaids were smart and brought an extra supply of oil, but the other five were stupid and didn’t. By the time the bridegroom got there at midnight, all the oil in the lamps had run out. No problem for the five with a spare supply, but disaster for the five dafties. The problems was, that there wouldn’t be enough for anyone if the five smart ones shared theirs, so they went on to the marriage feast, whilst the other five went off to find oil. By the time they got back, the doors had closed and they couldn’t get in – they were too late because they were not prepared. Take a look at the story in Matthew 25:1-13.

The real story of Hallowe’en is a warning that we should be looking towards the light rather than messing around in the dark. Jesus is the light that came into the world and He’s the light that’s coming back into the world and we’ve got to be like the smart bridesmaids and be ready and waiting for His return. And we can know Him today if we are prepared to trust and follow Him. We can do that by praying and asking Him into our lives. He will forgive us for the wrongs things we have done and be our friend throughout our lives. And when He comes, He’s going to take all who trust and follow Him to be with Him. THe rest will be left behind.

But following Jesus isn’t just about being with Him forever in the future, it’s about having Him in our lives everyday, so that we are prepared for whatever happens to us day by day because Jesus is with us. Here’s a crazy science experiment using eggs that show us what being prepared is all about.

To remember the story of the ten bridesmaids, why not have a go at making one of our lanters? You’ll need to be able to print or display the sheet below, get together the materials and follow the instructions in the sheet.

If you’ve got access to a printer, you can also have a go at some of the puzzles on our comic capers page.

Let’s close this edition of C-Kers online with a song. I mentioned earlier how we need to be prepared for anything that may happen to us in life by trusting Jesus. Why? Because He is able to do anything.