Shadow Puppets

“Don’t be deceived…Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:16-17.

When I was a little girl there was a french door off of my bedroom leading onto a balcony. We lived in the middle of five acres with many large trees around the house. There were nights when I would fall asleep to shadows on my wall that had been cast through the trees and glass panes. Through the night I would awaken only to find the benign shadows on the wall had shifted and plastered scary and disturbing images. I can remember the paralyzing fear as I tried to determine if the subject of the shadow was real or just that…a distortion. The more intensely I would focus on the image the more my mind would determine it was real.

When going through the eight years of my daughter’s drug use I lived in the constant shadows of paralyzing fear. What God had promised in the light of day was not what my faith reflected in the darkness. The shadows would shift from hope to despair and the distortion in my mind made it crippling. My focus was on the scary shadows of what may be than the promises from God of what was! In addition to my own fear was the vulnerability that gave the enemy a stronghold. He took pleasure in making shadow puppets with my circumstances. Focusing on fear over faith took him on a thrilling ride that he wanted to keep on enjoying.

Praise be to the heavenly Light who made the ride stop and threw him out of the park. I was deceived by my circumstances and allowed the enemy to shift the truth of who God was to how He was absent. The shadows were tall and ominous but the daylight returned and the truth was revealed once again…hope, promise, a miracle and restoration.

While our circumstances may change, our God will never shift. He is the same God in the daylight as He is in the darkness, despite the shifting images of our situation.

Don’t be deceived!