Blob to Blog
I caught my granddaughter running in fear yesterday while being chased. She was looking backwards toward the ground while running forward. (That alone is a blog.) What was she running from? Yeah. You guessed it…her shadow. Finally reaching safety at the back of the leg of her mother, Corin simply said, “Oh dad, she’s discovered her shadow, and she’s afraid of it.”
London’s almost two, and she really doesn’t know what a shadow is. To her it’s something behind her, chasing her, and she can’t shake it no matter what she does. I found it a little funny and kinda cute, but I had an idea.
I knelt down beside her as she clung to her mother’s leg and said “London, can you show me your shadow?” She pointed down to the ground at the evil dark blog, now right behind her. I said, “Well can you show me Pop-pop’s shadow?” She pointed across to mine. I said, Well, Pop-pop’s shadow wants to meet London’s shadow.” Out from the huge dark blob comes a hand extended to London’s shadow. She extends her hand and gives one of those Michelangelo God’s finger reaching to Adam’s type movements. (Or E.T. if that works better for you.) She pulls it away, and then I say, “Let’s do it again.” She then reaches out and for the first time she watches her shadow make a friend. “See, he’s not that bad.”
The picture on the ground behind her was starting to make sense to her. It was also starting to make sense to me.
Who hasn’t had to deal with shadows? That stuff behind us that seems to remind us of a time or things we’d rather forget. It’s there, it’s always gonna be there. You might not be able to erase what’s back there, but you sure can redeem what’s back there. In fact, I often notice when I’m running at the lake, at just the right time of day, my shadow runs ahead of me, sometimes stretching 30 feet long. Shadows out front can be another whole issue. A week ago, as a Sherpa guided me along the side of a cliff toward our goal of reaching Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal, he’d occasionally stop and have me look at how far we’ve come. The valley that seemed long, exhausting, and endless was now just a tiny speck in the past as we now viewed it from our new higher vantage point.
Got a shadow behind you today? Some things you’d rather run from? Join the club…but claim the promise, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You O Lord are with me.” ~ Psalm 23
One last observation: There wouldn’t be a shadow if there wasn’t Light somewhere close.
There’s no place like HOPE,