“When your child asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning ……’ Tell him…” Deuteronomy 6:20-21
Here at Wears Valley Ranch there is a joyous excitement in the air! The children are eager for this week because October 31st is one of our favorite holidays: Reformation Day! There will be plenty of candy and other treats. In the morning the children will share reports of what they have been learning about Huss, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and others. Then we will gather at the shelter to enjoy lots of games and at least one inflatable obstacle course. Some of the children will wear costumes recalling the pivotal events from the 1500s. Others will feel too mature for costumes… but glad to get candy.
Most of us did not grow up celebrating the Reformation. When I was a child, “Halloween” was a night about ghosts and witches, black cats and jack o ’lanterns or perhaps hobos and clowns. The candy was fun, but the meaning of the celebration and its historical roots were lost on most of us. We didn’t know what we were missing out on.
It is rather like thinking that July 4th is about fireworks and overlooking the fight for independence. It is like believing that December 25th is about Santa Claus and a reindeer, and that Easter is about a bunny and eggs. We actually have a lot to celebrate! And, when our holidays are understood, it doesn’t diminish our celebration. Our holidays become a joyous opportunity to instruct the next generation about the price that was paid for the blessings we enjoy.
We are grateful! God used flawed people to free us from the tyranny of a corrupt religious power that controlled European government and society with lethal force. The Reformation did not begin or end with the posting of the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church. But that courageous act by a Roman Catholic monk on October 31st, 1517 was so pivotal in the larger struggle for freedom that it has become the date that we celebrate what God was doing to revive His church. Because of the Reformation, God’s people rediscovered the truth of the Gospel. We are able to enjoy reading the Bible in our own language. Literacy and political freedom made enormous gains. World history around the globe is vastly different because men and women loved the truth and loved freedom more than life.
We have a number of recorded messages concerning the Reformation that I have shared with our students over the years. If you would like to listen or share them with your friends or family just click on the link below. “By grace you are saved through faith, and that is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not the result of works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to do.”
Jim Wood, Executive Director/Co-founder of Wears Valley Ranch
