Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen Psalm 77:19
Footprints in the Sand is a very familiar inspirational. The footprints in the sand along the beach of time were sometimes in twos as God and Man walked side by side. But when there was only one pair, it was when God was carrying Man. But, this verse gives another image of God’s footprints. The ones unseen because they are deep below the surface. They are under the waves: under-toe, so to speak. But just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they are not still there. Perhaps those are the times that we learn He not only walks on water, but walks underneath it and through it as well.
When I was a child we would head for the Texas coast on Memorial Day. Being too young to frolic in the waves myself, my father would lift me onto his shoulders. I was in the water, could touch the waves and splash, but he was protecting me, holding on tight. His footprints were in the sand, just under the water. Secure and giddy, I never felt any danger. I wasn’t afraid of the ocean even though I had seen the news reports of the hurricanes and witnessed the left over damage along the beach. But on those summer days on the Gulf, the ocean was my friend because Dad was there, his feet in the sand and me on his shoulders.
When I grew older and wanted to venture in on my own, I learned about undertow. The mucky sand pits that can swirl around your feet and threaten to topple you as the waves ebb and flow. You can feel the power of their pull on your ankles and if you stand there in the current long enough, you will start to sink into it, get stuck, and the waves can pound over you. There were also things you could not see under the water, like broken shards of sea shells, sticky tar balls, Man of Wars and Jellyfish.
Life is better and safer when we are on our Father’s shoulders. He knows what lies below the surface of our lives. I prefer to frolic in the safety of his grasp – don’t you?
