Through the Valley of the Shadows...
Shared with Marsha by Kristi, a Sister on this journey
I am comforted by the well-known words in Psalm 23. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me . . ." It's interesting that the Psalmist calls it the valley of the "shadow" of death.
When I was a little girl, I remember how I would get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and sometimes be scared of shadowy shapes I saw in my room and down the hallway. I used to see "elephants" in my closet, "snakes" on the floor (dirty socks!) and I once saw a "robber with a gun" in the hallway.
Each time I cried out my dad would come see what was wrong. As soon as he turned on the light, the scary shapes were gone and I saw them for what they were. The "robber in the hall with a gun" was a laundry basket I had played with and left turned upside down with a broom handle sticking out!
Yet even as he talks about the shadow of death, the Psalmist acknowledges that there is evil in the world when he uses the phrasel "fear no evil". On this journey through a broken world filled with sexual addiction, we know there is evil. We've come face to face with it; been knocked down by it; been hurt by it. My comfort and strength is in knowing that the Light--my Heavenly Father--exposes evil for what it is, and its power begins to pale and shrivel in the powerful presence of THE LIGHT. Just as my earthy father's presence turned a robbers with a gun into a laundry basket with a broom, so too my Heavenly Father's light and presence reveals that I pass through only shadows of death on my journey here because as his daughter, I have eternal life. I will never die!
