By Pastor Don Schatz

Shadow Evidence

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

I once left a hammer on our deck overnight. We lived on the Redwood Coast of California within sight of the ocean. We had fog most every night. In the morning, when I saw the hammer and picked it up, there was evidence of what I’d done. There had been a hammer there overnight!

Lots of things I do leave evidence, even if I am not aware of it. I left the hammer out accidentally, and the evidence was accidental as well. Some evidence is left accidentally, when the actual deed was done intentionally. It is the shadow of a hammer that is left when we speak unkindly, without care, or hurtfully to another.

Good deeds, kind words, a loving presence also leave evidence. A smile on the lips of one who doesn’t smile enough; a lighter step to another’s walk; a faith strengthened—they can be evidence, every one of them, of the light touch of Christ’s love through us.

“They asked one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'” Luke 24:32 New International Version

Christ’s presence leaves evidence. Sometimes it’s a burning heart that we don’t realize until later is evidence of Christ’s ministry to us. Like the Emmaus disciples, sometimes it takes a while to recognize the presence of the Lord that was true all along.

You and I can be the evidence of Christ’s presence in the life of another. Correct that—the evidence of Christ’s presence in the life of another is ALWAYS you, or even sometimes me. We carry Christ with us. Our Immanuel is with us to the end of the age. It is impossible to go anywhere and be without Christ.

The Good News of Christ’s loving sacrifice continues to be Good News in and through us. We who have been changed by Christ and the movement of His Spirit are agents of change in the lives of others. We just do it on purpose, not accidentally.

That, believe me, is Good News!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado