Some of you may be familiar with the poem ‘Footprints’. It’s a poem in which a man describes a dream he has where he sees himself walking with God along a beach. As he walks along the beach with God he sees all the different scenes from his life flash before him.  When he gets to the end of his life he looks back along the beach and notices that there are only one set of footprints during the saddest and lowest times of his life. When he asks God why he left him at the hardest times, God replies with these words:

 

My precious, precious child.

I love you and I would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering,

when you see only one set of footprints,

it was then that I carried you.

~Your Heavenly Father~

 

These words remind me of Isaiah 46:4 where God says ‘I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you’.

 

It was about this time two years ago that I began a journey, a journey that would transform me, a journey that would produce some of the hardest, scariest and most challenging moments of my life, a journey that would bring the words of the poem “Footprints” to life for me in a really tangible way. Just like in the poem, it is as I look back on the hardest times that I can see clearly that there was definitely only one set of “Footprints” and that that was where God was carrying me.

 

You may know exactly what it is like to have God carry you through hard times. You may understand what it feels like to have been brought through something you couldn’t imagine getting through on your own. You may never have experienced a situation where you’ve needed to be carried by God. You may just be enjoying walking beside Him. Whatever is going on in your life and whatever battles lie ahead, take heart knowing that we don’t have to travel this journey alone.

 

A good friend of mine sent me a link to this song during the summer. The words meant so much to me at the time and I still sing them as a reminder that God is always by my side.