Light and Shadows

"Mom, did you know that you can carry a light into a dark room and light it up, but you can't carry darkness anywhere at all?" Brody said. He and his sister Rey had begun a unit study on light and shadow. Rey said, "That's silly! You can trap darkness under a bowl and haul it around." She giggled. "I have a book of hand shadows. Can we try some?" Mom took a flashlight into the den, and the children followed the instructions in Rey's book. They shined the flashlight on their hands to make dog, butterfly, and goose shadows on the wall.Mom handed them a few items. "Can you make shadows of these?"Rey held up a miniature flag, an action figure, and a candlestick. Brody aimed the flashlight at them. Each one cast a distinct shadow on the wall. Mom pulled out a box of long matches and lit one. "Shine the light on this. What do you see?" The children had puzzled expressions. Rey said, "Not much." "Watch the flame carefully." Mom held the match up so Brody could shine the flashlight on it. "Nothing!" both children said almost at the same time. "Weird," said Brody. "The matchstick has a shadow, but not the flame." "Hey, that's like my Bible club verse from last week!" Rey said. "It was John 1:5. 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.'" Mom blew out the match before it burned her fingers. "Good job. And Brody, I think you also learned one about light this week here at home.""Yeah, let's see if I can remember." Brody squeezed his eyes shut. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." "Wow," said Rey. "Light doesn't even have a shadow." Mom nodded. "That's right. And Jesus calls believers the light of the world. Our world is a dark place full of sin, sadness, and death, but because we know Jesus, we can spread the light of His love to others and point them to the hope we have in Him. Think about how wherever you go, you carry His light with you, and no darkness can overcome it.""Let's show our friends how light has no shadow when they come over after school," Brody said. "They'll be amazed!"-Robin Steinweg