The Long Shadow

It was the long black shadow long on legs and short on torso that grabbed my attention.   The still very bright sun was obviously low on the horizon to cast such a long dark shadow in front of the photographer.  What was immediately clear was the simple truth that walking forward meant walking into the shadow.  And, no matter, how fast or how hard the maker of the shadow walked, it was not going to be possible to go forward without walking into the darkness waiting on the ground. 

 

Of course, such a shadow is not a permanent fixture.  The moving sun will soon shorten the longest shadow causing it to disappear.  Unfortunately, some of the dark shadows which stretch out before us and into which we must walk do not disappear so quickly.  Not only do they remain ahead of us, but they often seem to be deeper and unending.  We find ourselves walking forward into the darkness as if we are trapped in a world of no other possibility.  It is frightening.  It is overwhelming.  We look for a way out of what is ahead, but nothing shows ahead but longer and deeper darkness.

Sometimes we walk in the land of long shadows.  It is never a chosen or easy journey, but one where the road of our life seems to take us.  Someone spoke a word the other day in a moment when discouragement and fear could have taken a firmer hold and reminded me that before I knew I was in the darkness, God knew it was ahead.  It was a simple word.  It was also a word which reminded me I had not been walking in a strange land unknown to God, but that He had already walked it ahead of me.