Footprints in the Sand…

• Missions Meets today after Church.
• CROP Walk October 4th in Whately. Join us in walking, donating, and accepting donations!
• Look for a Harvest Supper to arrive in October…
• Morning Walks are now on Thursdays at 10am (instead of Friday).
• Holly Fair: November 28th.

Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times

All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).

These Reflections are written to be read aloud, please forgive any writing errors. You can find the recording HERE (usually late Sunday morning).

SUNDAY REFLECTION:

I love that the original version of this poem was written by a fourteen year old girl. In 1936.  It was originally titled “I Had a Dream”.  The girl’s name was Mary Stevenson.  (of note: authorship is debated, but most likely dates to Mary).

I think the most beautiful thing about that is the reminder that the smallest and most overlooked of us can make a great difference. 

How many people have been comforted by the words of Footprints in the Sand?  By the words of a fourteen year old girl?  

How many of us have been comforted by the words of Footprints in the Sand?

The most precious reminder in these words is that we are never, ever alone. And that there is a great Mystery that carries us along on our journey.  

I believe that one of the ways we have gone astray in our society as communal creatures is the idea of the self made man or the ruggedly independent individual.  The ways we look for and focus on what we did all by ourselves.  Alone.  What great things we, individually, did and do.  

Whether it’s a scientific discovery.  A great piece of art.  The answer to a complex problem.  A project completed.  A novel.  We’re trained to see what we did alone, but we never actually do it alone.  

There’s all the work and words and tools that came before that made our work possible.  There’s all the support and love and teaching that went into growing our ability to do our work.

In high school, a friend of mine wrote his senior paper on how he was a “self made man”.  I remember looking at his paper and looking at his life.  

He was encircled by so much love and support.  He had a mother who loved him and took such great care of him that he was probably almost embarrassed by it.  She took care of his friends too; she always packed me a lunch with too, because she didn’t think I ate enough.  Which he then had to deliver to me.  I’m pretty sure he always traded desserts if he thought I got something better than him.

His dad made sure he knew how to hunt and take care of a car and how to build and fix things.  He was encouraged to do the right thing and make the right decisions.  All good things, but also a lot of help and support.  

He had his brothers who helped teach him how to be and…how not to be.  I think he spent a lot of time trying to prove himself better than his brothers, as often happens when we have siblings.  

This is not to say anything disparaging about any of these things or even the essay itself.  There are elements of personal choice and determination, things he should be proud of, but none of us are truly as self made as we might sometimes like to think we are.  

That essay of the “self made man” always struck me (obviously; high school was a few years ago and I don’t remember what I wrote) and the determination to be self made.  To show how successful he was, and this is the point, all by himself…as if help was something to be ashamed of. 

Human beings are not meant to be ruggedly independent.  

Yes, we can take care of ourselves and we have a responsibility for our lives.  We have a part to play.  But it’s a part to play.  A part.  In the wholeness.  

We do greatest work…together.  

This poem is such a beauty.  

It reminds of of the beauty of interdependence and walking together.  

In the poem, God walks side by side with us on our journey.  When things get awfully, awfully tough, God carries us through. 

Did you catch that the person didn’t even realize they were being carried?  It was so hard, we didn’t even see or feel the presence of Grace holding us. 

Maybe we choose not to see the footsteps beside and beneath us, because it goes against the grain of being ruggedly independent.  Maybe we feel it is embarrassing to “need” help.  

There is a Mystery holding us that we cannot see or ever fully sense that is with us and it is beautiful.  

I believe there is also a third pattern.  We have God walks beside us.  We have God carries us.  I believe we also have God as cheerleader.  That at a certain point God steps onto the sidelines, watches, and cheers us on.  

The hard times when God walks with us, the harder times when God carries us, are practice ground for us to find our own feet. Our own courage.  Always remember that courage is different than strength…courage comes from the Heart.  The heart is where we feel the beat of God most intimately in this human form.  

Life is full of lessons we can learn from.  God helps us to grow and learn. God helps us to develop our gifts.  

Then, God steps aside (still there) and watches us spread our own wings. 

Cheering us on, knowing we’re ready, knowing we can do this, even if we’re not sure we can. 

We strengthen our gifts and our courage.  Not to be ruggedly self made or determinedly independent or isolated.  No.  To emulate God’s Love.  

True greatness is emulating God’s Love.  

Because then, it’s our turn.  

We walk beside our fellow creatures.  We help one another, the more than human world, and this great Garden we have been gifted by Grace.  

It’s said that “we are all just walking each other home”.  Wouldn’t it be lovely if we were walking each other home like Footprints in the Sand.  

As we get stronger and braver, in real ways, we can help to carry one another along.  We can be beacons of courage and light for those who feel weak and dimmed.  

As those we walk beside and carry through get stronger and braver, in real ways, we watch them test their own wings.  We cheer them on.  

And then…it ripples.  

More of us are walking side by side.  

More of us are carrying one another through.  

More of us are spreading wings and becoming living angels.  

Because, sure, we can distance ourselves.  We can “go it alone”.  We can be ruggedly independent.  We can think our way is the only way.  We can isolate ourselves.  But it doesn’t seem to be working.  This separation and isolation.  Our selfish determination.  

It doesn’t work because we are all in this together.  We are all making our footprints in this Sand.  

We are all together in this great Garden on the Web of life.  We are communal creatures. We are meant to be with one another. Walking with one another.  Side by side.  

There is more than we can possible know on this great Web of Grace.  Footprints remind us that sometimes we cannot fathom the Mystery that is with us and all around us.  We must simply do our work, our own and together, and Trust in something greater than ourselves alone.