Jumping Off Your Own Shadow

Jumping Off  Your Own Shadow

One of the pleasures of riding a bike, especially in the early morning or later afternoon, is the exercise of chasing one’s own shadow. There you are, bike and body, laid out in monochrome on the road ahead, and one is actually motivated to go faster - you know, to keep up with the shadow.

So long as the sun shines, we all have one, that is, our shadow. We don’t have anyone else’s. Just ours. And, it seems to be an appendage to our body, distorted, but which also always tells the truth. We are not quick enough to get away from it, even quicker than that light in the refrigerator that the frugal man wants to be sure goes off when he closes the door. The shadow is there, so long as the light shines, and it is there whether it is front of us or behind us, whether we see it or not.

I read a story about Alexander the Great who, as a young man, even a boy, was introduced to a group of men studying a great horse. The horse had proved to be uncontrollable, but Alexander observed and then took the halter. He had noticed that the horse was afraid of his shadow, and so if he positioned the horse toward the light instead of away from it, the horse remained calm. Are we like the horse, afraid of our shadow?

Why would we be afraid? Because the shadow tells the truth. But the good thing about shadows is that there is no record. As soon as we move, it is gone. But is that true? What if someone takes a picture? Does not the picture record the shadow, even if you are out of the frame? Shadows can be recorded, and just as we, on occasion, see our shadow, God does as well, always.

The world seems to be devoted to the elusive task of erasing signs of our identities and activities. We don’t want to be tracked. We certainly don’t want to be recorded against our will. But when God created the heavens and the earth, He included something in the very workings of the world, even when He made the first pronouncement, “Let there be light,” that would include us having a shadow from which we cannot jump.

For those who are afraid of their shadow, or afraid of being investigated or tracked, the only alternative seems to be to walk in darkness. No shadow there. And that applies to men and women throughout the centuries and in every place. It applies not just to the shadow on the wall, but to the record of our souls. We suppose that if we live outside of God’s gaze, we can hide our shadow. But that is not true, is it? Listen to these verses from Scripture: 

Job 34:22     “There is no darkness or deep shadow 
    Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
Job 12:22     “He reveals mysteries from the darkness 
    And brings the deep darkness into light.
Psa. 139:12     Even the darkness is not dark to You, 
    And the night is as bright as the day. 
    Darkness and light are alike to You.

The point is not that we should chase our shadows or seek to escape them. The point is that the only proper course is to embrace the God who sees us completely, and loves us anyway.