Harold Lehse

(2/25/1924 - 8/6/2007)

Helen Lehse

(1/2/1923 - 2/13/2008)

Devotional from Helen’s Memorial Service:

The Shadow of a Butterfly

A meditation delivered at the
memorial service for Helen Lehse

Covenant Village, Golden Valley, Minnesota
February 22, 2008
by The Reverend Dr. Michael A. Halleen

People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
(Acts 5:15 –NIV)

Love is patient, love is kind . . . Love never fails.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8 –NIV)

There was (and is) a belief in some Eastern cultures that a person's shadow, if falls it on you, touches you with the influence of the spirit of that person.  So people in the early days of Church, seeking healing and power, placed themselves in positions where the shadow of Peter and the other apostles might fall on them.  They believed that influence would bring them health and a renewed spirit, as these followers of Christ surely had.

So it is said that people from villages in India would maneuver themselves to a place where Mahatma Gandhi's shadow might fall on them as he passed by, thereby bringing them blessing.  At the same time, they would carefully avoid any possibility that their own shadows might touch him and thereby depreciate his noble presence.

We don't share the superstition that a shadow literally represents the good or ill that a person brings into this world. But it is worth considering that each of us does cast a shadow of some kind. We do have an influence – some are better for having had us draw near, some may be worse.

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