FOOTSTEPS

 

FOOTPRINTS

Last Wednesday Dick Burchell passed from this ephemeral world into the tangible arms of Jesus. He will be missed for now by those left to follow in the journey some other day.

He was, at best, an acquaintance. Would not have known of his passing except for his wife, Ann, being a Facebook friend. What I do know is that his wife and children, and a great many this present world friends loved him and held him in highest regard. They who knew him said of him he lived a full and good life. That says most of what I’d want to know about any man.

As I understand it he died following heart surgery complications. The morning he passed I was having a blood test, a follow-up to my bi-pass surgery in July at same hospital. When I made this connection, among those sobering truths heard somewhere, sometime, this came to mind:

     The fear of death is not in its certainty, but in its randomness.

I’ve seen just enough of life to not fear death all that much: Have had all the more popular heart issues, coded twice, almost been killed a few times by other drivers, and made many mistakes I’d not want to re-live.

I look back at life, however, and wonder about the randomness of it all. Why this one, or that one, and not me?

     How many times could it have been me?

     How many times should it have been me?

     Surely could not have come so far on my own?

Memory, sometimes referred to as inspiration, brought back this poem by Mary Stevenson:

FOOTPRINTS

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."