Shadows

Today's devotional deals with shadows. It brings to mind much of what has been going on in my head these past few months since my father's death. I brought home a box of photos that I and some of the siblings had gone through at my parents' house following the funeral and I just recently sorted through them again. They were photos of my childhood, photos of Texas where I grew up and the people that were my life then. Some of the photos I recalled, others I didn't. The people I knew, but the circumstances I didn't necessarily remember. Fortunately, the lady who helped raise me, Alma, had a habit of writing the dates, the people in the photo and how old we were at the time on the back of photos. I'm fascinated by that eccentricity, but grateful because it gives me a some perspective of the photos.  

Alma died when I was thirteen. She was 59 at the time and I vaguely recall that summer before she died and the events leading up to her going into the hospital and then dying a month later. But time had made it all hazy and shadows. Recently, though, as I looked through the pictures, I studied Alma's face and realized, based on the dates that she had written, that she had only months before she would enter the hospital and die. She probably had the cancer inside her that would kill her at the time the photo was taken. And in some of the photos, she did look tired and in pain. Unfortunately, I was too young and clueless to notice.

I just recently realized, too, that I am now older than Alma was when she died. It's an odd observation, maybe, but there it is.  

I write all of that to say this. My past is made up of shadows, of fleeting memories, veiled remembrances. My future is made up of Christ. He will dispel the shadows and replace them with wondrous light. So much of my life has been spent looking back to make sense of the shadows, the fleeting memories. But now, because Christ has come, I no longer have to dwell on what was. I revel in what is and what will be.

I heard this today on one of my Celtic Christmas CDs and thought it worth sharing. It fits with my reminiscences and ruminations.