The Shadow- Jonathan Chan

Moab, Utah

It was a dark night. There was no moon. And only a few stars could be seen in the desert sky... just darkness and the howling cold winds.

“Are you afraid of the dark?” asked the teacher.

“Sometimes,” I replied.

“In the Scriptures, darkness is a symbol of evil. Darkness is an absence, the absence of light. So too is evil…”

“Evil is an absence?”

“Evil is not so much a reality as the absence of a reality. It is not of the creation, but a denial of creation, a negation of what is, the negation of God. And so it can’t exist on its own, but only in opposition to existence.”

“What does that mean?”

“Truth exists on its own. It just is. But a lie cannot exist without truth. A lie is a twisting of the truth and so it can only exist by the truth, and in the denial of it. So too life exist without death. But death cannot exist without life. And good can exist without evil. But evil cannot exist without good. Evil is the denial of the good.”

“It’s the force of opposition,” I said.

“Yes.” He replied, “and in Hebrew that which opposes, that which goes against, is called the sahtan.”

“Sahtan,” I repeated, and paused until it hit me. “Satan! You can have God without Satan, but you can’t have Satan without God.”

“Yes,” he said, “So we can only discern darkness, because light exists, and what is false because the true exists, and what is wrong because the right exists. So then evil is actually….”

“A witness,” I said, “a hostile witness, that, despite itself, testifies of the truth.”

“Yes. The witness of the shadow, the darkness of falsehood bears witness that the Truth exists. The darkness of hatred bears witness that Love exists. And the darkness of evil bears witness that God exists. So never let your heart lose its focus by dwelling on evil. But seek always to see the Good, which is always there, beyond it and above it, on the throne, to which even evil must bear witness and bow its knee.”

Today, practice seeing through the darkness of every problem or evil that confronts you- to the good that lies beyond it.

-Jonathan Chan, "The Book of Mysteries", The Shadow.

2nd Nephi 2