Where's My Shadow?

I'm not sure if Coralyn has figured out what a shadow actually is yet. She has never gotten overly excited about seeing her shadow when we are playing outside. But she's probably too busy to take the time to notice she even has a shadow.

But that's not the shadow I a talking about today.

Coralyn has definitely noticed that our Shadow is missing and wants to know where he has gone. Every morning when she wakes up, she asks first about Daddy and then about Shadow. For the past 4 days now, the answer has been the same, "Daddy's at work. Shadow had to go bye-bye." This satisfies her for awhile, maybe 2 seconds, until we walk past Shadow's room. And then she says his name again. I tell her again that he had to go bye-bye, and she is okay, until we get to the kitchen. As I put her in her chair, she points to where Shadow used to sit and again says his name. She says his name a lot...whenever she plays with her cars (as he LOVED to play with cars) or when we go out through the garage and she sees his bike that is still here (until someone can come and pick it up for him) or when we get into the Yukon and she points to where he usually sat or when she opens the cupboard and sees a bag of chips (he liked Fire Cheetos quite a bit!). Everything seems to remind her of Shadow...the trampoline where they would jump together (or she would watch him jump), turning on the Wii and hearing the intro music (he played the Wii A LOT!), or a football he got for his birthday.

And every time she says Shadow's name, remembering him and wondering where he has gone, I pause and pray for him. I don't have any idea where he is now or what kind of family he is living with or if he has started school yet. So as I wonder about him, I pray...that he will make good choices, choose good friends, have the opportunity to go to church and learn about Jesus, trust in Jesus as His Savior, and thus be able to live a completely different life from what he has known these past 12 years. I pray he will taste and see that the Lord is good, that Jesus is what it's all about, and that he'll be able to enjoy the abundant life God is offering him.

Will you please keep praying for him too? The next time you see your shadow, will you think of our Shadow and take a moment to pray for him?