"Shadow" | Reflection by Daniel Robles, Vestry Class of 2023

I remember as a small boy watching the television soap opera “Dark Shadows.” The show followed the lives of the wealthy Collins family in Collinsport, Maine. It was pretty much the same as any other soap opera with one minor exception: it included vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, witches, warlocks, time travelers, and other supernatural characters. The theme song was an eerie violin playing as waves crashed on rocks on a gloomy, foggy New England day. 

I’d rush home from school to make it just in time to see who was going to be Barnabas Collins’ next victim. Barnabas Collins was the resident vampire, and if he bit you, you’d become a vampire too! At night I had to fall asleep with a light on because I was afraid of shadows—dark shadows. In literature shadows and darkness have historically, as well as in the Bible, been associated with the work of evil forces.

As I got older, I realized that shadows don’t have to be so terrifying. In fact, shadows can provide relief from the blistering sun, and even small children are entertained by their own shadow. A shadow can make things look bigger or smaller than they really are, depending on the angle of the light. Somewhere along the line I grew out of my childish play and fears to know that shadows can be a welcome relief.

In Psalm 91 it says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” The amplified versions say, “remain secure and rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” That seems to me a pretty good place to be, “the shadow of the Almighty.” Doe deer leave their newborn fawns in shadows of the forest to avoid predators. So long as the fawn remains perfectly still in the shadows, the fawn remains undetectable, safe, and secure. Just like the fawn, I imagine that if we stay still in the shadow of God, we too will remain unharmed.

Needless to say, I no longer go to sleep with the light on. Even when the sun does not shine, or I close my eyes, I remain secure and safe knowing that God watches over me, and mine. I can’t say, though, that I still don’t get a little creeped out when I hear the theme song to Dark Shadows—but that’s all it is, shadows.