Hebrews... The perspective of an ill lighting tech

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. -Aesop
I thought this was an excellent quote, especially considering what happens when we look at Hebrews 10:1-18:

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,

“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.

But you have given me a body to offer.You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”

First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,“This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts,and I will write them on their minds.”Then he says,“I will never again remembertheir sins and lawless deeds.”And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

Too many times we are looking at the shadow's and are so mesmerized by them. As a lighting technician, I completely understand this. One of the main things you're doing is trying to make shadows so that it will enhance the look of things, but you also want to diminish them, so that they're not distracting.
Think about it, if you were to go to a concert and someone didn't turn the lights on, it'd be like being blind. You could only enjoy part of the concert, the music side. Which is one of the main reasons you're going... But if there's no light, there's no way to see the person who's singing, it's kind of pointless. You want to see what you're looking at.

Okay, now think of a movie that drives you completely mental. Honestly one of my biggest pet peeves would be terribly made movies. One of the biggest one's for me is when someone lights the movie terribly. If you can't see the actor's face, what's the point??? Shadows are awesome, and you can do some cool things to enhance things with them.

One of my favorite movies is "Arsenic and Old Lace." There's a scene in the movie where the bad guy is supposed to look creepy. So what they did was just showed his shadow on the wall, standing really tall over top of this really short guy. It was beautiful because it showed how he was really this terrfying unknowable person. You wouldn't want to get to know him for fear of dying...
My point is this, if you only saw that scene in the movie it'd be pointless, you wouldn't understand the rest of it. You wouldn't know what the bad guy looked like. I don't know if I'm making any sense here... the doctor put me on a ton of medication for my asthma, so I could just be rambling...

But we need to stop just looking at shadows and we need to see the point. God has given us such beautiful things, and we're called to be lights in a dark world. The shadow's? They just prove how cool the light is. :)

Yep that's the perspective from a really sick lighting techie :P

Have an awesome night.