Shadows

I look out my window at work a lot. I would be embarrassed to calculate how many hours I have spent watching people get gas at Town & Country … steal water from Town & Country … sit at the bus stop … or tote big things to the pawn shop. I love to people watch and am fascinated by their behavior.

You know when you are at the store or out in a parking lot and you do something embarrassing? You look around wondering if anyone saw you … they most likely did. Because everywhere there are people like me who like to people watch. I know that is probably a scary thought … but you needed to know.

Anyway, right outside my window there is a bus stop. For whatever reason they’ve chosen not to have any kind of cover to offer shade to people … it’s just a bench sitting out in the baking sun, pouring rain, and freezing snow.

Inevitably, around this time of year people will begin to seek out the shade. It’s just too hot to sit on that metal bench baking in the heat. There happens to be a telephone pole right there that offers a tiny bit of shade. I have seen, on more than one occasion, someone squeezing into the shadow of that pole … seeking relief.

They never fit all the way … they have to choose which part of their body will hang outside the shade boundary because it just isn’t a big enough shadow to cover them.

As I watched a woman will herself to be smaller so she could fit into that shadow, I started thinking about how many times the Bible talks about us being in the shadow of God’s wings.

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings (Psalm 17:8)

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (Psalm 57:1)

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:7)

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 63:7)

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
(Isaiah 49:2)

I love the thought of being safe … finding relief in God’s shadow. Even better is the thought of how great and wide and massive His shadow is. I do not have to hope that I will fit under it … or will myself to be smaller so that my belly doesn’t hang out. I fit. You fit. We all fit. There is always room in God’s shadow.

And another great thing about His shadow … not only is there always room in it … but …

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

 … it doesn’t change. Ever. No matter what.

So when your spirit is hot and thirsty …  your soul is cold and tired … or your heart is experiencing a storm … find rest in His shadow … take refuge under His wing … and sing for eternity in the refuge - of  – Him.