just shadows

All that meets the bodily sense I deem
Symbolical -- one mighty Alphabet
For infant minds! And we in this low world,
Placed with our backs to bright Reality,
That we may learn with young, unwounded ken
The Substance from the Shadows!
-- Oswald Chambers

By faith we understand the the universe was formed at God's command,
so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible --Hebrews 11:3

God's material creation is an allegory to illustrate spiritual reality.
The spiritual realm is eternal; the material realm is temporary.
The spiritual realm is the substance; the material realm is the shadow.
The spiritual realm is the reality; the material realm is the picture.
-- Jennifer Kennedy Dean