“These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
Colossians 2:17

I am fascinated by shadows and how objects bathed in light form them. When I was a young boy I used to enjoy chasing my shadow or trying to change the shape of my shadow by turning my body in different directions. What I discovered was that trying to hold one’s shadow is a fruitless endeavor. A shadow will not be captured or contained for it has no real substance. But as a child this didn’t stop me from trying to catch and hold my shadow. Though it seemed fun as a game, it left me with very little that was real in the end.

But a shadow can perform a particular function. It can draw our attention to the real object that stands illuminated by the light. The shadow, though it is not the reality can give a hint as to the form and nature of the reality. A shadow is a two dimensional image of a three dimensional reality. It can draw our attention to the reality, or we can fixate on the shadow. A two-dimensional image takes up little space and demands very little of us. The three-dimensional reality does take up space and may in fact get in the way of our plans.

In the spiritual life often times I can get enamored with the shadow while missing the reality. In fact I have a tendency to invest time and energy in shadows that were meant to point me to the reality just beyond them. When it comes to a vital spiritual life I can at times hold up my religious experience or tradition as an essential component to all spirituality. This can present problems since my own experiences and traditions are somewhat limited and capture only a hint of the reality God longs for me to experience with Him. The forms of prayer I learned as a boy, the liturgy and worship I found so helpful to my faith, or the particular behaviors I associated with Christianity were not necessarily wrong, but they were not necessarily the only or the fullest expression of the Christian faith and life. The small sense of security and comfort they offered were more related to my desire to manage and control my relationship with God and assure my status with Him.

The religious community of Paul’s time seemed also to be prone to get enamored with shadows of spiritual things rather than the reality of the Spirit and life of Jesus. The adherence to their traditions, religious forms, and practices intended to lead them to Jesus became an end in themselves. They had become focused so much on, and were so comfortable with, the shadow they had allowed to define spirituality that they had missed the reality of true Spirit-inspired relationship with Jesus. They had exchanged the true substance for a less than adequate shadow. They began to insist that others get on board and chase the shadow with them and in so doing were becoming a hindrance to the growth of others in their relationship with Jesus.

In our daily lives it is always important to discern between the shadow and the substance. The reality we need is the life of Jesus graciously revealed in His life-giving and transforming touch. My encouragement to you this day is to enjoy your traditions, spiritual practices and experiences that lead you further into the presence of Jesus, but be careful not to define the depth and breadth of that relationship with Jesus by those things. These traditions, practices and religious experiences create too small of a box to contain all that Jesus is and wants to be to you. Your spiritual experience will always be enlarged by a living and loving encounter with Jesus. Therefore, as I often suggest to those with whom I sit in spiritual direction, “Make sure your spiritual box has elastic and expanding sides.” May your encounter with Jesus today deepen your knowledge and stretch your faith in new ways in the expansive life of God. Blessings.