I love the story of footprint since I accepted Christ. And I think most of the Christian heard the story before. This passage about the footprint was quoted from somewhere in the web.
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FOOTPRINTS…A New Version
Imagine, you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace.
But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns.
For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually your footprints come more in line with the Lord’s, soon paralleling His consistently. You and Jesus are walking as true friends!
This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: Your footprints that once etched the sand next to Jesus’ are now walking precisely in His steps.
Inside His larger footprints are your smaller ones, you and Jesus are becoming one.
This goes on for many miles, but gradually you notice another change. The footprints inside the larger footprints seem to grow larger.
Eventually they disappear altogether. There is only one set of footprints. They have become one.
This goes on for a long time, but suddenly the second set of footprints is back. This time it seems even worse! Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Gashes in the sand. A variable mess of prints.
You are amazed and shocked. Your dream ends. Now you pray: “Lord, I understand the first scene, with zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning. But You walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with You.”
“That is correct.”
“And when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps, following You very closely.”
“Very good.. You have understood everything so far.”
When the smaller footprints grew and filled in Yours, I suppose that I was becoming like You in every way.”
“Precisely.”
“So, Lord, was there a regression or something? The footprints separated, and this time it was worse than at first.”
There is a pause as the Lord answers, with a smile in His voice.
“You didn’t know? It was then that we danced!”
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I read about this new version quite some years ago, but the last part about dancing with the Lord, I only get to understand it when I started to learn ballroom dancing. It is not easy to dance. When dancing, certain rules must be followed and normally the female cannot take the start but to wait for the male to give her signal to start the dance. The female cannot have her own idea where to go, but to closely follow the male which step to move, whether to make a turn, or to go backward, to go forward, to start or to stop. When the partner had been dancing for quite some time, the female will be very sensitive towards the move of the male. And she can catch every of the signal given by her partner and dance according to what her partner wants.
So, being a Christian, we are like learning to dance with the Lord. We have no right to decide which move to take, but to wait upon to the Lord to give us signal on which step to take. We cannot be too fast, and cannot be too slow.. when the Lord move, we got to quickly follow Him.. and when we do so, we can dance gracefully with the Lord, those around us will be amazing with our gracefulness when we dance with the Lord. Will it be very tough dancing with the Lord? Our Lord is the best dancer, and He will make sure u are under guided. when you are not sure where to go, He will give u a pull or a push, a hold or letting off and to make sure u go the way He wanted.
How beautiful it is of this new version. And I guess the writer must be a dancer too… so as the AUTHOR… =)
Thank God. I never know I can appreciate dancing this much. =)