“Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.” (Ruth Renkel) I walk our little dog every morning about 5:30 A.M. and in the Winter, it is usually dark. As we walk along the sidewalk and pass by street lamps, I cast a shadow in front of me. As I get further and further from the light, my shadow gets longer and longer and at the same time it gets lighter until it no longer defines me. It started me thinking about all the ways the term shadow is used to describe various things in life. When I was a youngster talking tough with my friends, to buoy ourselves up, about another kid that may have been a threat to us, we would use a term like, ‘He’s afraid of his own shadow.’ The friends we had in our youth, provided support of all kinds, but those who would challenge us mentally and expect a little bit more from us were probably our best freinds. As Plutarch so wisely said, “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.” As I got older I heard different sayings where the term shadow was used. When an extremely slim person was being described the saying was, “My goodness, that person is so slim they don’t even cast a shadow” or “If that person stood sideways they wouldn’t even make a shadow.”
In those days, radio was our only form of entertainment in the evenings, and I enjoyed listening to a radio show called ‘The Shadow,’ and one of the statements preceding every show was “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” Then, along with a scary bar of music, the words, “The Shadow knows!” The Shadow was a crime fighter who, as I recall, could only be identified or seen as a shadow. Our imaginations were later replaced by TV presentations, but I believe, the things our imaginations conjured up while listening to the radio were much more scary than those images that came to us on the early TV shows.
The scriptures, too, use the term shadow frequently, primarily in reference to symbolism. Types and shadows are spiritually oriented symbols that teach of Christ and His saving ordinances.
“And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming.” (Mosiah 3:15) Many examples are found in the Bible. The story in the Old Testament about the Children of Israel and how they often murmured and complained while they wandered in the wilderness. At one point they rebelled and the Lord punished them by sending serpents among them and they pleaded for relief, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee (Moses); pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us….And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole… that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass upon the pole, he lived.” (Numbers 21:7–9)
The serpent was a type or shadow representing Christ on the cross as was pointed out in the Book of Mormon, “Behold, he (Christ) was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live. But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts….O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes then…begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection.” (Alma 33:19–22) Christ is our Savior, the serpent on a pole was not Christ but it was a shadow of Christ because it too could save them if they would look to it.
Another example is the story of Jonah, “But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:29–30) The story of Jonah was a shadow of the death and resurrection of the Savior.
As I observed my shadow during our morning walk, it occurred to me that another shadow or symbol was being defined for me. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of light. “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. (D&C 50:24) As we are faithful in the church we are eligible for, and exposed to, more and more Gospel light. The closer we stand to that light our shadows will be short and clear, defining us as disciples. Those who become inactive or begin to develop negative traits, move away from the light and the shadow that they cast begins to become elongated and eventually strung out, washed out and imperceptible. The shadow they cast no longer defines them as a disciple.
There is a story about a man who had been a regular attendee of his local church but who, for some reason, quit attending. The Pastor decided to visit him one chilly evening. The Pastor found the man home sitting before his fireplace. The pastor made himself to home but said nothing. They sat there in silence contemplating the flames around the burning logs. After a few minutes the pastor took the fire tongs and carefully removed a burning ember and placed it on the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in silence.
As the lone ember’s flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more and it was cold and dead. Not a word had been spoken and the Pastor glanced at his watch and realized that it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with tears running down his cheek,
“Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.” It was obvious to the man that for him to maintain the spirit of the Gospel he had to associate with those who had that spirit, or light.
In this world of temptation and strife we must maintain a closeness to the light so that the shadow we cast continues to define us as we want to be defined. We flourish in the light and our spirits grow dim away from it. Our days in mortality are few in comparison to eternity so they should be used in harvesting as much light as we can. I appreciate the song titled, “Improve the Shining Moments,” one of the verses includes the following: “Nor can we ask the shadow to ever stay away.” I interpret that to mean that even though our desire is to always remain in the light, we must know that there will be times when our access to the light will be diminished. May we always remain close enough to the light so that our shadow will define us as a disciple.