For many of you it has been a long time since you have really paid attention to the long black thing that occasionally follows you around on the sidewalk. But, remember when you were a kid and were amazed at how there was a reflection, even though somewhat distorted, of you on the ground. We would often play games and try to move our body in certain ways to make our shadow look different. Our shadow is in essence an extension of ourselves it helps our body take up more space and can be cast feet away from where we are actually standing.  Let’s consider for a moment a man in the bible and how the shadow he cast effected the people around him.  In Acts we can read a story about a man named Peter and his shadow.  Acts 5:15 says, ”

15 to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. 16 Also the [a]people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick [b]or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.”

We know that no person possesses the power to heal,but it is the power of God working through them that heals or saves a person.  So when Peter’s shadow passed by those people and they were healed was it really Peter’s shadow or had Peter been in God’s presence enough that it was God’s shadow? We can recall another man in the Bible Moses who when he spent time in God’s presence his face glowed as a visible sign of God’s presence to the rest of the people.

What does your shadow look like today have you spent your day consumed with yourself and  no one is really positively effected by your shadow. Or have you spent time in God’s presence so that his power and virtue is flowing through you and it is His shadow that other people see and experience when you walk by?  Wouldn’t it be great to walk through the grocery store, school, or sit in a restaurant and hear about how people were being healed, set free or asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins? From these verses in Acts we know it can happen, but it can only happen when  we allow God to cast his shadow through us.

What does your shadow look like today? If it looks like you what can you do today to make your shadow look different?