By: Lars Janssen
I went for a walk today, and it was chilly. I had to flex my hands against the cold as I stepped out onto the shady porch. But as I began walking down the sunny sidewalk, I found the contrast remarkable. One moment, the cold was seizing up my joints, and the next I was basking in radiant warmth. As my route passed through shade, I noticed that I was looking ahead hopefully to the sunny parts of the sidewalk. Some of those shady sections felt pretty long. David used this idea of shadow vividly in Psalm 23: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. … Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” I can almost feel the warmth of the pasture on my skin and the cold bite of the valley in my knuckles.
As I walked through the sunny warmth and shady cold, a conversation I had on Sunday morning came to mind. The conversation was about how the dark times in life can seem to stretch on and on. We talked about the encouragement of other Christians praying for us when the shadow doesn’t seem to let up. And we appreciated the psalms that show us how to call out to God from the darkness:
“My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?” (Psalm 6:3 ESV)
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1 ESV)
“Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!” (Psalm 90:13 ESV)
As we talked, I felt like we were behaving a bit like children in the back seat of the car on a long drive. As if we (and the psalmists!) were calling out to God, “Are we there yet!?” I would have felt a little silly if the suffering we were discussing weren’t so real. But at least the child in the back seat is asking the right person—the driver knows when they’ll get there. And at least we (and the psalmists) were asking the right person. God certainly knows when the shadow of death will pass.
As we talked, I remarked that our Christian struggle with “the valley of the shadow of death” isn’t a matter of asking, “Will I make it or not?” Even the child in the back of the car believes she’ll make it to the destination. And we know that even in the deepest shadows God is with us (read all of Psalm 23!). He will bring us through.
It was a line from none other than Superman’s Lois Lane that got me thinking about all of this on my walk. Lois Lane said, “Darkness, the truest darkness, is not the absence of light. It is the conviction that the light will never return.” At first, I assumed the line was Hollywood nonsense, but as I walked and thought, I wasn’t so sure. With every patch of shade I walked through, I felt the ache of wondering if the sun would ever shine on me again. That kind of despair is what we fight when we cry out to God in the deep darkness, “How long?!” When we call out to our Father, “Are we there yet!?”
We never have to ask if the Son will return or not. He will. If we feel the shadowy cold in our bones and the deep darkness doesn’t leave, we know it will not last forever. Jesus is why we never have to despair. It’s not a matter of will we make it or won’t we, it’s just a matter of how long until he brings us out of the deep darkness again—maybe forever this time.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me…. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:4,6 ESV)
