No shadows

One of my best friends is dying of cancer and is rapidly getting down towards the end. He’s a great Christian man and I know that he’s all set for eternity. My friend does not fear death and knows that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

In the lessons-learned chapter of my recently completed book I talked a little about death being something that Christians shouldn’t fear. Psalms 23 is perhaps the most widely used Scripture at funerals and was obviously inspired by God and given to Christians in order to reassure us. It tells us that we will walk through the valley of the “shadow” of death. I was thinking about this and wondered why God chose to use an analogy of a shadow to describe the death experience.

A shadow is an area where direct light cannot reach. It must remain behind an object with light in front of it. We have shadows in this world but will not have them in the next. There is no night in heaven and God will illuminate every nook, corner, and crevice with His dazzling presence.

In Psalms 23 God pointedly states that as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death that “we should fear no evil”. We will leave death, evil, and shadows behind forever when we die. God’s radiant and resplendent light will flood them to nonexistence.

The Lord has promised that He will be with us to guide and comfort us and that we will dwell in His house forever. We have nothing to fear from death or shadows, both are harmless.


Isaiah 60:19
“No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory.