Me and My Shadow

Well, you've hit mile marker 7 today.  We've tried bricks and other heavy objects and even tying you to the ground with rope and a few stakes, but you have refused... you kept on growing!  You've learned so much this year: how to ride a bike without training wheels; how to grow a garden together; to love reading and many other things.  It's been an amazing year, and I am so proud of you!

There's one thing I have noticed about you this year; you've really become my shadow.  There's a really old song called "Me and My Shadow," that describes a guy's strange relationship with his shadow.  He's all alone in life except for his shadow.  He describes how his shadow goes everywhere with him and does everything with him.  Everywhere I go, you want to go.  Everything I do, you want to do.  Like this photo, you are acting silly like your daddy.  If I mess with your sisters, you want to do it too.  At the end of the worship service, when I go to the back of the auditorium to say goodbye to folks, you're right there with me.  Perhaps if God lets you be a daddy, you'll get to know how much all that means to me.

I haven't always done things right, in fact, I've made quite a few big mistakes.  As you have shadowed me so much this year, I realized one of all parents greatest fears is that you would make some of the same tragic choices I've made.  But my prayer is that you would shadow me as I shadow my heavenly Father.  To go where He wants you to go, to do what He wants you to do.  To love being with the heavenly Father much more than being with me, your earthly Father.

One day, I know you will become you're own man.  Hopefully, you will have a little shadow of your own, and hopefully you will carry on the good stuff I modeled for you and not the bad stuff: a love for the Word of God, a love for your wife, and a love for serving others.  You may not become a pastor, and that's ok.  God has made you for His purposes.  Search it out and discover what that is and shadow the heavenly Father and you will do fine.  I love you Buddy.  Happy 7th Birthday!

"So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." - John 5:19