April 12, 2011

• N-RWOTD {Shadow}

  Last evening Nikki and I went for a little walk.
  
  I only needed another 5 or 10 minutes to finish out my 30 minutes of walking for the day, so I thought it would be a good time for her to go along without getting too tired out.
  
  It was about 6:30 in the evening as we started off, hand in hand.
  
  The sun was shining brightly and spring was in the air!
  
  Our old dirt road is almost dried up after the winter snow thaw and there remains only a little strip of stubborn, dirty snow along the one side of the road.
  
  Both of us were wearing flip flops.  Because Nikki likes to wear whatever I am wearing.
  
  Her hair was all a mess.  The pony tail holder that had been neatly in place in the morning had now slipped back in her hair and there were stray strands everywhere!
  
  As we walked out the road, with the sun at our backs, Nikki noticed our shadows looming ahead of us. Tall and thin.  
  
  She said “Mommy, look at our shadows!”
  
  Mine a little taller than hers.  You could even see her messy hair in the shadow.
  
  We walked about 5 minutes and then turned around to head back home. As we were walking under some trees, Nikki noticed that our shadows weren’t present.
  
  She asked me “Mommy, where did our shadows go?”
  
  And I replied automatically  “You can’t see our shadows right now because we are in the shade.”
  
  Then I added, still kind of absent-mindedly “You can only see your shadow when the sun is shining on you.”
  
  As I said it, I was struck by that thought.
  
  “You can only see your shadow when the sun is shining on you.”
  
  You know how we have shadows in our lives.  Hard times.  Valleys to walk through.  As Psalm 23 says “Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow…”  
  
  Of death.  Of financial difficulties.  Of the every day stuff of life that sometimes gets us down and wears us out. Of a broken marriage.  Of wayward children.  Of illness.
  
  But the fact that there IS a shadow means that the sun is still shining.
  
  If there wasn’t a shadow, that would mean that we are in complete darkness.  In the shade.
  
  The fact that the light of Jesus is shining is what makes us able to see the shadow.
  
  But we have to look up.  Past.  Beyond.  To see the light that is still present. And bright.
  
  The other thing I noticed…as we were walking back home, now with our faces towards the sun, our shadows were behind us.
  
  Not in front of us like they were when we our backs were to the sun.
  
  So much of life is about perspective.
  
  I am not trying to downplay or minimize very hard things that we sometimes need to walk through.
  
  But when our face in towards the sun, when we are fixed on walking in the light and towards the light, our shadows are not so obvious.
  
  They are not there, looming right in front of us, waiting for us to step on them.  They are behind us.  They are still there, but they are not our focus.
  
  The light is the focus. The shadow is our companion for a time, but not what we are defined by.
  
  Sometimes I feel like these things make more sense in my head than they do when I write them down, but I felt like God gave me a special look into something very deep last night as I walked with my daughter, hand in hand, towards the light.

  I think that is what God wants to encourage all of us with today, as we may be walking through those times of shadow in our lives.

  “Keep walking, my daughter.  Keep walking towards the light. I’m still here.”

  • 12:15 pm
  • 18 Comments