Scary Shadows

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me. Psalm 23:4

I have been reading the 23rd Psalm since I was a little girl and have just now "processed" a word in this verse that has monumental meaning. The word "shadow" brings a revelation this morning like no other! A shadow is a counterfeit image and a distorted reflection of a reality.

In any valley there are certain truths - truths that are immovable. For example, I am living as secondary caregiver for my father-in-law who suffers with Alzheimer's. That is a "valley truth" for which I live and move. My shadows bounce off of that truth creating shadows of fear, frustration, sometimes anger and doom. Like shadows, these untruths sometimes appear bigger than the reality from what they are reflecting.

Have you ever noticed that shadows are always taller and loom over us than what our bodies reflect? They are always distorted much like with our fears. In the 23rd Psalm I feel that God is saying though we will travel through these scary valleys, the death we sense are only shadows of our reality. There is no death in Christ so if we are allowing Him to guide our steps through the deep terrains we may see images of certain deaths, death of an earthly life, death of a marriage, death of a tightly held dream, but they are only shadows in the valley and hold no power over us except the power we assign them in our minds.

What shadows is your reality casting?