Casting and Chasing Shadows

As the autumnal equinox draws near, if you take your sunrise walk or run on a road which runs due west you have a sense of running with the sun and toward a shadow, a very long shadow.  But you can never catch that shadow, no matter how fast you run.  The shadow is longer and always ahead of you.  The sun creates a path and a goal.

Which is what I saw one morning this week soon after I had learned that my good friend’s father had just died. John Steven Gabrielse was the last of the founding members of a what has grown into an international contracting firm.  John and his co-founders started out literally digging ditches and grew from that humble beginning a company that has employed hundreds and which one of John’s sons and a grandson continue to grow with their partners.  John cast a long shadow. He was a good worker, but more than that, he was a man of a steady and strong faith.  Both his work and his faith cast these shadows which all those who followed after him can follow and never catch.

What gave John the ability to cast that shadow, he knew, was that he was always running with the Son.  There were of course the usual hard times that come with running any business, and raising any family.  No life is without some darkness. Yet, on this earth, the darkness is always dispelled by the light of the faith which fuels our journey. For John and his co-founders, the company they built moves steadily forward, following the shadow John’s life and faith cast.  John’s journey west is over. His life of faith is now rewarded with the white robe and crown awarded to those who cast long shadows for the Son on this earth. But what for those who remain?

It falls to each of us to faithfully follow the example of the Forerunner.  Think about someone who cast a long shadow that you still follow.  But more than that, commit your life to running with the Son at your back. Like John,  cast a long shadow that those whom you love can chase all the way home.  This is a life worth remembering.

And then one day we will all be together, walking in under the “welcome home banner”, where there is no more sun, for God will be our only light.  And the shadows will be no more, for we will dwell in perfect light. Forgiven, redeemed points of light, surrounding the Son.  The chase will be over. Life begins…