Walking. It’s effortless. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot and so on. All of the actual work behind walking comes from our brain’s incredible ability to send signals to our legs that it’s time to move them when we long to get somewhere.

But, we aren’t always the ones doing the moving along.

Mary Stevenson wrote an incredibly impactful poem titled, “Footprints in the Sand,” really spelling out how as humans, we cannot always move ourselves along. There are times when we feel so down and worthless that we cannot even get ourselves out of bed. However, we still move forward.

Before continuing to read my article, see “Footprints in the Sand” below.

“One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

The Lord has a funny way of being able to carry us without us knowing it. We can be in the worst periods of our life, and not be able to see Him in it. But isn’t it funny how when it’s all said and done we can see exactly where He was, and how we were carried through it?

At one point it was practically impossible to see how the Lord could possibly be there with you, but it quickly transitions to asking yourself how you could’ve possibly gotten through it without Him. Isaiah 41:10.

Leona Lewis has a beautiful song, also titled "Footprints in the Sand" relating to this poem, and I strongly recommend it.