Schatten

I was running the other morning. At five o’clock it was one of those really dark mornings. I meandered through my hilly neighborhood. An occasional car passed me. I wondered where the driver was going at such an hour. They probably wondered why I was out running at such an hour. I think a dog barked at me. I couldn’t really tell...the music from my iPhone was louder than a hello from a friendly Labrador.


And then it happened. I was attacked. He jumped out of nowhere and started chasing after me. My heart rate spiked from a steady 140 beats to 200 beats per minute. I didn’t know if I was better off running away as fast as I could or staying and putting up a fight. I didn’t know if he was armed with a knife or a gun. I thought if I have to die, that running and listening to Norah Jones isn’t a bad way to go.

Then I realized what happened. My forward progress triggered a streetlight on my left side to come on. My body prevented the light from hitting the concrete. The music and my inattention lowered my awareness of the surroundings. It wasn’t a big, mean person chasing me—it was my own shadow chasing me.

I caught my breath, laughed, and continued running. I remembered a few weeks before when I was running on a very hot afternoon at Platte River State Park. Most of the running at the park is in the shade. That day I noticed the punishing sunlight during the few sections that aren’t covered with shade. Shade was a welcome relief.


It led me to thinking how a shadow and the shade are the same thing: Relative darkness as a result of the interception of the light rays. One can be quite scary, one can provide relief; neither are harmful, and both should be seen for what they are and what they are not.

In the German language, both shadow and shade are the same word: Schatten.

The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your (schatten) at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. –Psalm 121:5-6

God is our schatten. The sun will not harm us by day. I don’t know of many things more painful than a sunburn or heat exhaustion. Except brokenness in relationships, stress about jobs and money, emotional exhaustion, and self-destructive behaviors. God brings wholeness to the broken world we can see (the day). It is human nature to worry, or at least be concerned, about the world’s future, the future of our loved ones, and our future. We experience anxiety over various things, many of which we cannot control. God brings hope to the world, which we can’t fully see yet (the night).

I’m grateful God is our schatten.

The best is yet to come…

Craig