Shadows

Photo Courtesy: Becky Brewer

The other morning I was coming back from a run and I looked down and saw a rather large shadow on the ground. It startled me a bit because it was moving along in step with me. Creepy...

I looked a little closer though and realized that it was just a bug, a tiny one at that. I could have easily crushed it without a thought. It certainly wasn't anything to be startled or creeped out about.

It's kind of dumb now, looking back on it, but the whole thing got me started thinking those "deep thoughts." At least, perhaps, they're the deepest thoughts a person can have at 6 a.m., worn out from a run and just trying to get home.

Anyway, I thought to myself, "Aren't most shadows like that?"

Deceptive.

Larger than life.

My point is that a shadow is made up of darkness, it's the absence of light. They shift and shuffle as light moves and they scatter immediately if you shine a light on them. In the shadows, you really can't see well and they deceive you into thinking something is there when it's not or something is bigger than it really is.

Satan deceives us in the shadows.

They're like lies - its not the blatant ones that draw you in. It's the subtle, mostly true ones. Shadows do the same thing. It's not the dark, black, scary places where you get caught up and lost in sin. Those places are obvious and much easier to avoid. It's the gray places, the subtleties of life, that drag us right down into the pit. They're just dim enough to see, and just dark enough to deceive. You think you see something that you need or want or desire. And you pursue it. After all, it's not that dark. You can see enough to get there and get right back out again.

But once you get there you realize it's darker than you thought, it's deeper than you imagined. All of a sudden you find yourself trapped in the mire - you're stuck before you even realize what's caught you.

Scripture describes shadows in many ways. Our lives are like shadows, death is a land of darkness and deep shadows, and there is a valley that lies in the shadow of death.

If that were the only way shadows were mentioned in the Bible, shadows wouldn't seem very good to me at all. Yet, Scripture also talks positively about shadows - they speak to the very shadow of the Almighty God.

"How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings." Psalm 36:7

"He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91:1

"And I have put My words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of My hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are My people.'" Isaiah 51:16

"They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon." Hosea 14:7 

We hide in the shadow of His wings because in Him there is no darkness, there is no shadow. The shadow of God is as bright as the morning sun, so even as we run to hide there we can see exactly where we're going and Who we're hiding in.

There is no deception.

There is no trap.

It is exactly the size it seems - HUGE beyond all imagining - but it's not scary because the very bigness of God is what comforts us. It gives us a peace that passes all understanding because we know that in Him there is no fear or worry. And His Word gives us assurance that all the blessings and pleasures of this life are found when we take refuge in the shadow of God.

Run from the shadows you face in life, whatever and wherever they might be, into the shadow of God.

You will find no safer refuge.

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That you might know Christ,