You Are My Shade

You are my shade 
when the sun beats down with tropic heat, 
when its beams creep in like crafty spies, 
when it hides its face but penetrates. 
You are my shade. 

You are my shade
when the enemy blasts with full attack,
when he sneaks in wearing a new costume,
when he comes behind me to whisper lies.
You are my shade.

You are my shade,
fanning me with your Spirit breeze
and the summer scent of the waving grass,
soothing my heart with love and peace.
You are my shade.

Life in the tropics taught me to treasure shade as grace from God—a grace not ever to be taken for granted!

A crucial moment that underlined this came several decades ago when we were traveling north in Mali, the country across the northern border from our home in Côte d’Ivoire. My daughters were about seven and three years old. In the middle of a desert wasteland our car broke down. Glenn flagged down one of the few passing mini-vans and hitched a ride to the next city to get what was needed. There I was in the middle of “nowhere” with the girls.

It was too hot  and stuffy to sit in the car. We saw a tall rock nearby, maybe six feet high and a yard across, and settled in its shadow. My girls grabbed whatever they could find in the sand around it, sticks and stones mostly, and began building an imaginary world. We were there for a few hours, moving slightly as time passed and the shade shifted, oh so grateful for that protection! Finally Glenn returned and fixed the car. We took off, but the powerful imagery of shade as protection had taken on deep meaning for me.

Like the sheep in the village in the photo above, when the sun beats you up you take whatever shade you can get. The sun’s rays are viewed by nationals in that West African area as so vicious that they cannot use Western imagery like what was in a chorus we used to sing: “There is sunshine in my soul today, so glorious and bright!” I asked a group of Bible translators from several different  language groups what they understood when I said those words (in French). There was silence, then finally one man raised his voice and said: “You’ve got deep trouble, Madame!”  They agreed, though, that when the sun rises and disperses the darkness it is a very good thing, so you just have to be very careful whether you say “the sun shines” (it beats you up!) or “the sun rises.”

That explains the power of the shade imagery used in the Bible to describe God’s protection:

O LORD, you are my God! I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. For you have done extraordinary things, and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed. ² Indeed, you have made the city into a heap of rubble, the fortified town into a heap of ruins; the fortress of foreigners is no longer a city, it will never be rebuilt. ³ So a strong nation will extol you; the towns of powerful nations will fear you. ⁴ For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath of tyrants is like a winter rainstorm, ⁵ like heat in a dry land, you humble the boasting foreigners. Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. (Isa. 25:1-5 NET)

That was how Israel felt when they knew God had saved them from tyrants! This psalm also echoes the theme:

I look up toward the hills. From where does my help come? ² My help comes from the LORD, the Creator of heaven and earth! ³ May he not allow your foot to slip! May your protector not sleep! ⁴ Look! Israel’s protector does not sleep or slumber! ⁵ The LORD is your protector; the LORD is the shade at your right hand.  (Ps. 121:1-5 NET)

Those are just two examples. They speak to those of us who are dealing with some kind of distress, whether it be conflict, loss, danger, overwhelming work, or any other hard situation. If we keep standing where the heat waves beat down on us, we get burned or completely dried up. We need to turn our hearts to the respite of the shade that our Yahweh, shelter and protector, offers us constantly. He is always at our right hand, the hand involved in action. He is constantly beside us. He is our shelter, even when we are active, moving around to do what he gives us to do.

His love reminds the psalmists of the imagery of a mother hen’s wings that gather her chicks in close comfort, the shadow of her wings:

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Ps. 36:7 NIV)

Like sheep thirsty for whatever shade they can get, like chicks scrambling for refuge in the shadow of mama’s wings, like little kids happily playing in the shade of a rock in the desert, we know where to go for the protection we need:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps. 91:1 NIV)

Turn there, live there, and persevere through the heat in his perfect shade!