Do you want to see a snapshot of something adorable and absolutely spontaneous?

Their cute shadow heart was pretty awesome, all their own idea, and just what I needed this morning.

Shadows are so much fun to play with from creating shadow puppets, playing shadow tag,  to just having fun with how silly you can look all stretched and tall illuminated by the glow from the sun.

A friend of mine embarked on a long journey a few months back with one of his hopes being that he’d get to know this guy more. (That’s his own shadow, by the way.)

Many of us are on similar journey: the journey to know who we are, who we are supposed to be, and what we are meant to do in life. For some the journey is straight forward, while others struggle to find their way. And maybe the problem is many of us travel the journey  of life looking down at the shadow and missing out on the light.

For years John the Baptist had been proclaiming the message God. When Jesus began his ministry John’s disciples didn’t know what to make of this new teacher. John knew and he told them, “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’  The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”

He knew the time for looking at John the Baptist was ending and the time for looking to Jesus was at hand. “He must become greater; I must become less.” While at the time he spoke of his own role fading so that Jesus could be exalted, this phrase has continued to speak to Christians for centuries.

Thinking about shadows, the higher the sun rises in the sky, the smaller our shadows appear. James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Maybe the nearer we draw, the more of God we see and the less of us. And if we really want to know ourselves more, we need to look less at ourselves and look more to God.

There is a lot to be said for knowing who we are, the basics of our personality and the beauty of our talents and giftedness. Yet if we wait for our shadow to give a detailed picture of our appearance… well it never can do that. Similarly if we are looking at ourselves to determine who we really are and what we are supposed to do maybe we look at the wrong thing.

“He must become greater; I must become less.” How does this speak to you?

~Jillene