Category: allegory

Walking

A popular parable describes a person walking along the beach while being shown images throughout their life. There are two sets of footprints in the sand — the person’s and God’s — until tragic moments are displayed, during which God explains that the set of footprints were His, and He was carrying the individual through those moments.

The reason why this parable is so popular is because it reveals the loving and supportive nature of God, and I think it’s a good analogy for how God cares for people through times of crisis. However, as with any analogy, we can take it too far, and I think the danger with “Footprints in the Sand” is that we imagine God carrying us through all of life.

The Christian life is a journey. It’s a process of learning to be more like Christ and discovering what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. While there is plenty of biblical evidence that God will certainly carry us through times of hardship, I believe God wants us to journey with Him. So often we pray that God will guide us to where He wants us to be, as if He’s pushing or even carrying us to wherever He wants us. Instead, I think He wants us to journey with Him, trusting and leaning on Him to discover the next steps.

I do not like change. I’m uncomfortable with the unknown. I like to know where I’m at and where I’m going, so blindly following an unseen God to uncertainty is a real struggle for me. But I also know the goodness of God, and I know that a true relationship with Him involves a mutual trust: me trusting that He will daily guide each step as I lean on Him, and Him trusting in me that I will listen to His voice.

Allow God to hold and carry you through times of tragedy, but I also invite you to walk with Him through this crazy journey we call life.

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Tale of a King

Tale of a King

Once upon a time, there lived a great and mighty king. This king ruled over the people with tremendous love and mercy. He genuinely cared for every one of his subjects. Throughout the week, everyone would gladly work hard and make sure the land was prosperous. At the end of the week, they would all attend the royal ball that the king would host in his great palace. Every man, woman, and child would dress in their finest suits and gowns. They would sing and dance, and the king would fill the banquet table with the most delicious food and drink you can imagine. You could see it in his eyes — the great love he had for his people, and it gave him immense joy to see his people so happy.

One night, something was different. Out of the thousands of gowns twirling and voices singing, the king noticed someone was missing. A child — a young girl with a crippled leg — was not in attendance.

So the king commanded his son — a young and mighty prince who cared just as much for the kingdom as his father — to go find her. For an entire week, the prince searched every square inch of the kingdom.

In a far, dark corner just outside the kingdom domain, the prince finally found the young child caught helpless in a ravine. As the prince began to pick her up, an evil witch appeared.

“The child is mine,” snarled the witch. “I tricked her into believing I could make her more beautiful than the king ever could.”

The prince looked down at the young crippled girl and asked if it was true. “All of the other children tease me for my bad leg,” admitted the girl shamefully. “The crutches make me ugly, and I just want to be able to run and dance like all of the other children. But now I just want to go home.”

“Dear child, the king loves you more than you can imagine. You may not be able to run like the other children, but I promise you are special for a reason.”

The witch bartered with the prince. “If the king wants her, then you must stay and pay the price. As the law declares, if a subject steps into my kingdom, they must die here. She can leave if you die.”

So the prince placed the young girl on his horse and sent her back to the king. The witch bound his hands, tied a rock to his feet, and threw him into the nearby lake. As the horse guided her back to the kingdom, the young girl looked over her shoulder to see the ripples fade away.

The next morning, the young girl woke up to notice that she was riding on the horse with the prince walking next to her. Startled and confused, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and asked what happened.

“The witch was crafty. What she said about the law is correct. Someone had to die in order for you to return home. But what the witch does not know is that I have the power of the king. Because I sacrificed myself, that power brought me back to life, and now I’m able to guide you home.”

Throughout the rest of their journey, the prince taught the young girl all about the king. As they arrived back at the palace, another royal ball was just about to begin. As the crowd split, the young girl hobbled up with her crutches to the center of the floor where the mighty king stood waiting.

The prince took her crutches as the king picked up the girl into his arms. At that moment, a violin began to play a waltz, and for the next few minutes, the entire kingdom watched as the majestic king danced with the lost, crippled child.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” —John 1:14