Shadows

Have you ever felt like you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death? You know that feeling, when you just don’t see a way out of the situation you find yourself in and you question whether God is actually with you. I have only experienced this feeling once in my life but I still remember how lost I felt. I had had such faith in God that He would work things out and everything would be okay, and yet things just seemed to get worse. I reached the point where I could not see a light at the end of the tunnel and couldn’t imagine a way out of the darkness that surrounded me.

That is when God brought Psalm 23:4 to my attention – “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me.”

As I studied this well-known little verse, I came to realise a couple of very significant things that I had not thought about before. First of all, I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. It was only a shadow of death, not death itself. I remember thinking that shadows are only reflections and if it was only a reflection of something, then there was hope of a way out.

Secondly, and most importantly, I realised that shadows can only appear when there is light. If I hung on to God he would keep me from total darkness because his light was embedded in my heart, no matter what was happening around me, and I knew then that eventually he would light the road in front of me and walk me out of the darkness.