The shadow of your smile
When you are gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn…
The year was 1965. The movie was The Sandpiper. The stars were Elizabeth Taylor as the seductress and the late Richard Burton as the Episcopal priest she seduced. The sentiment in the song is that our experiences remain with us in shadow form, but add beauty and brightness where once we knew only the chilling contrast of black and white. The song won an academy award for Best Song and sold in record numbers as recorded by Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand.
But the song is a lie. Sin does not add bright colors to our lives and change the harsh contrasts of reality into a multicolored dawn. But God is so powerful that He can heal a multitude via a shadow--much more powerful than the shadow of a seductress’ smile.