Shadows are interesting things. As christians, we like to think we live in the light and avoid darkness. Then along comes a hot day, a place with no water, lots of concrete and every bit of sky is cloudless. No, this is not heaven, but an abandoned industrial area.
I thanked God for the shadows of the building, and the livingness of the plum tree, completely forsaken by gardeners, yet growing in the heat.
Job, says a lot of things. One of the things he mentions is that a servant longs for a shadow. As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work, so am I made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me. (Job 7:2,3)
Kind of glum, this reference, but it does fit the way I was feeling at the moment, and even so, in spite of the fact that I was tired and wanted to do nothing but nothing, there were these glorious shadows.