12th May 2021

I was reminded recently of that famous devotional poem ‘Footprints’. Its author describes life as a walk on a beach with the Lord. Typically two sets of footprints are left in the sand, but as the poem observes, sometimes there is only one set to be seen, and usually coinciding with the hardest moments of our lives. The author then helpfully explains that in such times, it is not that the Lord has abandoned us, but that He has carried us.

I’ve been for many walks on the beach with my children, and I’d have to confess that it seldom looks like that. They rarely walk beside me, and only want to be carried when it suits them, and not when it suits me. If I had to map the sets of footprints, particularly theirs, there would be some where they are walking beside me, some behind, some ahead, some racing down to the water, some lost in the water, some stopping short of a beached jellyfish, some skipping around a funny stick-drawing in the sand.

It is a precious truth that the Lord carries us in and through our hard times. But it is also a precious truth that the Lord simply walks with us in the uncomplicated and mundane times of life. Undistracted. Keeping interest. Never absent. But very present, and watching over our meanderings. And happy for those times when we come alongside Him. And happiest in those times when we simply grasp His hand, content.

DM 12^th May 2021