When I was still a kid trying to behave well and nice in one of those Sunday schools that I honestly dreaded to attend because it interferes with my time to play and journey around the neighborhood, we were taught to sing children songs or action songs—the kind that makes you now feel awkward if you try to recall acting them in front of people.
However, if there is one specific song I learned during my childhood that captures me now that I have come to a point in which I can evaluate my life—amidst all the joy and troubles, happiness and sufferings—that is the song entitled “Footprints in the sand”. It is a song that doesn’t really seem special to a kid of 8 years old, yet it was something significant that even though I already forgot the exact lyrics, its meaning is still clear today as when I first mouthed and sang its melody.
The song, as we came to know the story, is about a man who dreams he is walking with the LORD by a beach one day. And in the ocean flashed scenes of his life: happy and sad moments, trying and difficult times, everything. The man noticed in the seashore two sets of footprints: his footprints, and the LORD’s footprints. Then, as different scenes of his life was shown in the ocean, he came to notice that during the most difficult times in his life, there were only one set of footprints in the sand. He immediately became angry with God. He said he never realized that God could leave him during the darkest moments of his life. But God replied in His gentle voice: “I never left you. The single set of footprints in the sand was mine, not yours. It was then that I carried you, during your most difficult times…”
The man cried, for sure. Who won’t?
Looking back at that story, it made me realize that there are those times that difficulties and all sort of trials come to our lives, even if we try to avoid them. There are those instances that we never ask for but still they come—and oftentimes, they come with great proportions that we are left in tears, crying.
On my part, I have already been through unimaginable trials and difficulties that I never thought would happen to me. There are those circumstances that almost made me give up. I was so frustrated by so many things in my life that I became bitter. I thought I already had my fair share of frustrations and troubles enough for a lifetime that I even came to a point where I questioned God’s justice. I tried to come to Him and say: God, You are unfair, why did You allow these things to happen?
But I realized that I should not be blaming God for the sufferings I experienced. I am not qualified to challenge God’s wisdom because surely His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and His ways are higher than mine. I have learned to accept trials as part of my life because God’s Words promised that everything works together for good. Who am I to revoke that? Who am I to question that?
When I try to look to back how far I have gone from being a stubborn little dreamer I was, I can not help but be overwhelmed by the fact that I am still here not because of my own strength, but because there is Someone greater than any of the power I can imagine. I know that in any trials I face, I should be strong because my God has powers to make every works of the enemy to flee, and every dominion to bow down before Him.
The footprints in the sand remind me to see God’s undying faithfulness. And for sure, when the time comes that I look back again over my life and see just one set of footprints in the and…I will be right of saying that it was not my footprints anymore…it was God’s.
