Halloween: it is an abbreviation, of sorts, for All Hallows Eve, or All Saints Day. November 1, a day on which the church encourages us to remember all the saints, not just the “official” ones with “Saint” days that everyone knows, like Valentine and Patrick. There are other saints, that is, holy people, who are not famous, whose names are not widely known. In your own life, there are saints, I suppose, folks who have shown you something more, something holy even, something of God—a relative, a teacher or coach, a neighbor, a friend.

We used to have this framed saying hanging in our house. It said, “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our heart, and we are never, ever the same.” Ironically, it was stolen during one of my wife’s garage sales, but as we approach Halloween and All Saints Day, I hope that you will find the time to think of the saints in your own life—the people who have come and stayed and left their footprints in such a way that you have been changed for the better. Who are they? How did they change you? And what can you learn from them that could help you to be the kind of person for others that they were for you?

–Pastor Don Steele