Shadows

Have you ever looked at your shadow?  Walking along a sidewalk with the sun at your back, and there on the ground is your shadow.  What you see of your self in the shadow is an outline of your shape, but little more.  The shadow we each cast is only one dimensional; there is no depth or width to the shadow.   No matter how you turn your body, the shadow remains flat.  There is no color variation in the shadow either, because it is the absence of light.  It is only dark, no shading or intensity, just flat black.  Even upon further examination, you will find no details.  Eye color, crooked teeth or straight, big nose or small; none of these are evident, none will show up in the shadow.  It is just an outline, an empty surface.

How should we then understand it when scripture compares a shadow with something else?  In Colossians 2:17 Paul writes the following; “These are a shadow (the religious regulations and practices) of the things that were to come, the reality, however is found in Christ.”  Paul is reminding the believers in Colosse that their salvation from sin came through the grace of God in Jesus Christ and not through the works of the law.  The reality is in Jesus, the shadow was all that came before.

This is an astonishing comparison: the practices of the law, the shadow and Jesus, the reality.  Think about your shadow, the flat one dimensional outline of you.  Compare that   to your reflection in a mirror.  The mirror shows the particulars of your face and body, not simply an outline of your shape.  The reflection is detailed, and like a photograph, tells much more about you.  But even a photograph, or a reflection, is not like being in the same room with a person. It is not like sitting next to someone and feeling their breath as they speak, seeing the expressions play over their face, hearing them sigh.  The mirror and the camera can give an adequate representation, and it may be accurate as far as it goes, but it is incomplete. 
 
When I was dating my husband, he went into basic training in the army.   We were going to be apart for several months and during that time all we had for communication were letters and a few photographs.  While those were comforting, the silent photograph was not an object to put my arms around and hug.  The letters, were wonderful, but were a one way conversation.  I was glad to have the pictures and letters, but both were limited and partial.  Nothing could compare with being together.

I believe God, through Paul, is trying to help us see that all we know of Jesus, of what He has done for us, of what awaits us, is far beyond what we perceive now.  What we have now is flat, colorless, one dimensional and silent.  We have a shadow, an incomplete outline of something we have never seen before.  We have the words given us in the scriptures and the indwelling Spirit to help us, but all in all it is still partial.   We must not invest too much in the shadow; we must desire the reality, which is Jesus, because what waits is as different as the shadow of a loved one from that person running to greet you with a hug.

Social Distance

Of all the reactions I have seen to the threat of Covid-19 and the social distancing now expected of all of us, two stand out to me.  The first is the fearfulness I have seen on the faces of others. Walk down any aisle in a grocery store and turn a corner and watch the expression on the face of the person you pass by.  While it is sometimes difficult to see the expression, there may be gestures or muttered words which make their feelings clear. Your bodily presence is too close.  As I walk outdoors and come near a person walking toward me, I have noticed that many walk way around me, avoiding even eye contact. It seems that each of us is seen as a potential carrier of death; and therefore malicious and to be avoided at all costs.   This reaction saddens me greatly, because we are seeing each other as the enemy.  We are assuming the worst of each other, no longer acting out of grace, just fear. 

The second reaction I have noticed is the longing for connection with others.  This action is nearly opposite the fear based behavior, but I believe they can exist together.  We desire the company of others precisely because we were made to live in community.  For even God, our creator, the One whom we reflect, lives in community as the Triune God.  Love and community exist in the Trinity, there is relationship there, and as image bearers of God, we need those things too.   Recall that when God created Adam and brought him all the animals to name it was not enough. God declared that it was not good for man to be alone; man needed someone suitable to him.  Not an animal or a fish, not even God, but another human.  So we also need one another.  We need the companionship of fellow human beings.  We do so much for one another by our presence, and when we cannot be together, we realize all we have taken for granted.  To sit and talk with another, hash out ideas and thoughts is much better face to face than via a video chat.  To be able to reach out and touch another, give a hug or hold a hand has meaning beyond mere words.  To cry on the shoulder of another, or kiss a child conveys emotions that words cannot carry.  These all have been hindered by the requirements of social distancing.  We are told to keep physically apart, but our hearts are also being distanced.  
How do we proceed in both the fear and the lack of connection?   I am not certain, but I do know that we are better off to not let fear drive our actions. Fear leads only to suspicion, worry and meanness. Instead we must be lead by God through His word.  We can lead lives of caution without the fear controlling us. And we can remember the example of Jesus who when confronted by the unclean leper, reached out and touched him.

Evidence

Have you ever been up against a wall?  You are faced with a choice and unsure of how to choose?  Perhaps a new job opportunity, or a new love in your life, or maybe, a medical emergency; and now you need to decide what to do.   Do you gather all the facts you can?   Making a list of the pros and cons about the issue is often helpful.  Having a list of all the evidence you can find to inform your decision is not only smart, it is necessary if you want to choose wisely.

So what constitutes evidence?  A dictionary definition reads; “evidence is the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.”  Evidence is all that information we can gather with our senses and learn with our brains.  Gathering evidence can be as simple as asking if the sun is shining or if it is raining outside.  We are all gathering evidence daily.  But, when it comes to making an important decision, we all want as much evidence as we can, in order to make right choices.  Evidence is important.

As I read the account in Numbers 10:17-33 where Moses sends out twelve men to spy out the land of promise I was challenged to consider the importance of evidence gathering.   The spies were sent out to gather facts about the type of people lived in the land, what their fortifications were like, what the land was like in geography and the types of produce grown there.  They were to gather evidence, using their five senses, about the land.  This was the land promised to them by God. It was known to them as the land of milk and honey, the place God had told them about, their promised future home.   They had departed Egypt under miraculous circumstances less than two years previous and now they were nearing their goal, they were soon to be settling in the Promised Land.

So the twelve men set out to gather first-hand eyewitness evidence of the Promised Land.  Can you imagine the excitement?  They were to be the first to actually see the land.  Having heard about it for ages, they were now going to experience it for real.  From the desert, they trekked north, nearly as far as modern day Lebanon, and then returned back.  For forty days they looked at cities and farmland. They were able to see the type of people that populated the land and how they lived.   All the evidence they were asked to gather, they did.  

Once they returned to the camp, the twelve men were called upon to give their report on the evidence they had gathered with their own eyes.  And so they did.  The men reported that the land was a good land.  The soil was fertile for growing crops and fruit; they even brought back an enormous cluster of grapes as evidence of the productiveness of the land.  Indeed the land did flow with milk and honey.   It was a beautiful land, this land of promise.  The men also reported on the type of people that lived in the land and how the people fortified their land.  The spies reported that the people were frightening. The land was super fortified, the cities were walled. Giants lived in the land!   This was the evidence the men had gathered on their exploration of the Promised Land.  This was their list of the pros and cons on whether or not to enter the land.

Twelve men spied on the land and gave the facts about the land, but only two of the twelve supplemented that evidence with additional facts.  Recall that evidence is “the available body of facts…”

 In that list of pros and cons, ten of the spies neglected additional evidence, evidence of recent experience, which was also necessary to make an informed decision.  That evidence, of seeing the God of promise work and of believing His words was as crucial for them as it is for us. All the people, spies included had not only seen this evidence, they had actually lived it.   Not more that a couple of years earlier, all these men had seen plagues affect their Egyptian masters, but not themselves, to the detriment of the entire land of Egypt.  Not more that a couple of years previous, all these men had seen their first born sons protected from a plague which took the life of all the first born sons of the Egyptians.  Not more than a couple of years in the past, all these men had seen the barrier to their freedom, an uncrossable  body of water, drawn aside to allow them to escape from their captors as they walked  on dry ground through a parted sea.  And not more than a couple of years previous, these men had all seen the mighty army of the Pharaoh of Egypt drowned in the very waters that had been parted for them.  

The evidence of the power of God for them was right there.   The proof that God would protect them, lead them, fight for them was a part of their experience, a part of the evidence.  Two spies believed this, the other ten did not.  The ten did not count the evidence of God’s fulfilled promises, of His track record.  Promises kept, leading that has proven true; these are as much evidence as the size and type of fortifications and need to be as much a part of the decision making.  The ten ignored these remembered facts, perhaps out of fear, perhaps due to unbelief.  For whatever reason, the ten spies did not evaluate all the evidence.  Their list of pros and cons concerning this decision was woefully incomplete. 

What about us?  Do we believe the evidence of God’s work in our lives or do we doubt He can or will do it again?  When we are up against giants and fortified cities, do we forget that God has already dealt with all that in our past and can do it again?  When the evidence we see looks bleak, do we not recall that God has already proven Himself?  When we are hemmed in, do we forget Who is leading the way, Who has called us?

Evidence that is seen always looks bigger than facts that are remembered.   We may fear that God will not come through this time; that He won’t be there or rescue, or protect.  And that fear is what quashes the evidence of the past, the evidence of God’s track record.  If you are facing a difficult decision, a closed door or an uncertain future, what ever the evidence before you, recall the evidence of the past too.  Recall what God has already done, what He has already promised you, how He has proven His words to you.  Don’t be like the ten spies and leave your list of evidence incomplete.  When you draw up your catalog of evidence, can choose to list only what you see with your eyes or you can list the evidence of your eyes and the evidence of God’s faithfulness.  Make sure you consider all the evidence, because it could mean the difference between reaching your goal or taking a long, dry detour.

Death's Door

Do you ever wonder what heaven is like?  I do.  It’s the getting there that scares me!  The best book I ever read about it is the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn.  If you are wondering, read it.  But there remains the getting to heaven part; like the song says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

The prospect of death as we observe it from this side of life is often frightening.  I think because we just do not know what it will be like, how it will feel and the total unknown of it all makes us guarded.  We don’t run to death, we don’t even like to talk about it.

One minute we are taking a breath and the next minute, it becomes our last breath.  We are gone, leaving behind the body in which we have lived our entire existence. How can we hope to even have a clue about the process of dying, it is foreign to everything we have ever known.

But we do have some clues, given us by the only resident of heaven and earth to actually go through death and then return to life, Jesus.  Do his words have any instruction or encouragement for us in this the most unknown of all journeys every one must take?

I believe they do. 

To begin, have you ever been away from home?  When I went to college, I lived three hours from home, away from all that was familiar to me.  Still, I was thrilled to be on my own, living and making my own rules and schedules.  What young person doesn’t enjoy being free of parental restrictions, having the chance to prove themselves in the world?  No younger siblings to pester and annoy me.  No Saturday chores that had to be finished before the weekend began.  I was the captain of my ship.  And yet, those familiar routines and the affections of family were also gone.  Even though I could decorate my half of the dorm room in whatever way I choose, I missed that particular way my mother could make a room welcoming.  Although my meals were my choice, somehow a cafeteria table was just not the same as the dinner table at home with all of my family around it and my mother’s homemade dessert on the menu. 

Even with the reality of new of freedoms and new responsibilities, the lure of home was strong.  I just missed home.   There was one time I decided to surprise my family and go home for a weekend visit.  Since I had no car, travel entailed a three hour train ride north to the city and then a commuter train ride to my town and then a walk to my house.  I remember hoping that my visit would be a good surprise for my family.  They must have missed me, right?  When I got to my house I stood at the front door and wondered if I should knock, or just walk in.  It was my house, but the door stood between me and all that I loved in the house. 

And that is what I picture when I think about death; a door.  It is the one thing that stands between me and all that I love, and all who love me.  Just a door.  Do you recall Jesus saying in John 10:7 that He is the door?  The door that stands in the space linking life and heaven is the One who had proven His love for us by dying for us. Yet it is still daunting. 

I still must take that step through the door.  But how wide is a door threshold?  The span of one step?  It is perhaps twelve inches total, from one side to the other.  That is what stands between all I love and me.  Two questions arise from this; do I really love what is on the other side of the door, and do I really know what is on the other side?  Perhaps some of the fear of death results from being unfamiliar with the God we claim to follow.  If we really don’t know Him well, know what He has said, what He has promised, then it will feel strange and daunting.  Rather like knocking on the door of a stranger. 

But if over our lifetime He has become Father to us, and like an older brother, then it is like family.  If we have sent ahead all our treasure, then it is like our safe place, our dream home.  If we have talked daily to Him about all things on our minds, if we have argued with Him,  if we have wept with Him and felt His comfort, then it is a place of peace and calm. If we have disappointed Him, failed Him, sinned against Him and yet been forgiven then it is a place of welcome, of forgiveness, of love. 

The door, which leads to all we have ever longed for, all we were made for is just a door, a threshold to be stepped over.  For all who are redeemed, death is not a dead end, death is not a stranger’s door, it is the way home.