One Set of Footprints

My children are good sleepers now (my son still sleep-walks sometimes, though not as often as he did), but there was a time that every morning around 3:30 or 4:00, I'd wake to the padding of feet in the hallway, and in another moment, a warm body would crawl into bed next to me and cuddle with my pillow. For a while, I tried to fight the good fight: I'd force myself out of my cozy nest, pick up said child, and return them to their own sleeping quarters so they could learn to stay in their own bed, but after years of this occurrence, I gave up. 

When my children needed the extra security of their parents' bed, I let them have it. On a nightly basis, when they woke in the dark, afraid of their imaginations or their dreams, I allowed them the steady reminder that their parents held their security in hand. If they needed to press a little closer to the source of their security, I allowed them that.

As they grew older, their need for assurance changed, and they no longer haunt our hallways. They still return to my husband or me at times for extra security, but those instances don't take the form of nighttime visitations.

Much of Genesis 35 is a reiteration, a reaching back for the security of God's covenant promise. Jacob has been living at Shechem until the horrific details of chapter 34 (see Sleeping With the Enemy from yesterday). God speaks to him now and says: "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau" (Genesis 35:1).

I spy another bookend (nerd-victory!). :) 

Left-Bookend: At the beginning of Jacob's journey, he flees, caught up in deception and treachery, and God shows up and tells Him that He will be with him; that He will not leave Him during the entirety of his life. God reiterates His covenant promise to Jacob. Jacob sets up a stone pillar, anoints it with oil, and calls it Bethel: House of God (Genesis 28:13-15). 

Right-Bookend: Jacob returns to Bethel as a result of God's direction. The Lord shows up and speaks to him. He reminds Jacob of His covenant He'd made with Abraham, again with Isaac, and now with Jacob, and He reminds Jacob of his new name: Israel: Wrestles with God. Jacob sets up a stone pillar, anoints it with a drink offering and with oil, and calls the place... Bethel.

So God re-covenants, God re-calls, God re-minds. 

When my children came to find me in the wee hours of those mornings, it wasn't because they had forgotten where they were or who was taking care of them...

It was because they needed a simple reminder of their security. Sometimes, it was almost a subconscious reach toward their source of comfort (I'm not altogether sure they were always awake when they walked into our bedroom). It was a leaning in, a checking in. "You there? We good? Everything still the way it needs to be?"

Jacob's life is full of events that tug at his security: 

1.) Brother wants to kill him: check.
2.) Treacherous and deceptive uncle/father-in-law pursues him when he runs away: check.
3.) Brother, Jacob thinks, might still want to kill him: check.
4.) Sons slaughter a whole city and in so doing, make Jacob a "stench" to all the people surrounding him: check. 

All of these events keep him on his toes, but God walks with him through each one, reminding him of His presence at every turn. Jacob/Israel checks back in, wrestles with God, pads to the bedroom with his teddy tucked under his arm and finds the warmth and security offered Him when things are just a bit unstable.

I was thinking this morning about the blanket of fear that seems to be stifling our world right now. Covid-19 has brought with it repercussions that no other sickness or plague or virus has ever done in my lifetime, and the whole globe has... hunkered down. Fetal positions. Trembling balls of fear. No one knows how to fix it. We're all holding our breath, waiting it out. 

Finding security where we can. 

Jesus tells Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." In 12:10: "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I wonder if Jacob delighted in his weakness, because he knew God would show up, that God would make his weakness perfect by filling him with strength. Maybe he did know, maybe he didn't. 

But his life is a testimony to his constant check-ins, his return time after time to the God of his father, the God of his grandfather. Jacob is the epitome of crawling back into the safety of His father's arms and into the security of knowing God has not forgotten him.

At Bethel, in God's house, he remembers that God has this, whatever this is.

What is your this? What has you padding down the hallway to check-in with God?

I think Covid would be on everyone's list. What else? Instability in leadership? Global instability? Spiritual instability? 

Here's a thought: maybe instead of a nightly check-in, it would be better to crawl up into God's lap, let Him wrap His arms around you, and stay there like an anchor against a rock. Deuteronomy 31:6 says: "Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." 

If God will never leave you...

Don't leave Him.

God is our constant. He constantly shows absolute faithfulness. Can we return the favor? In our limited, human way, can we be faithful to walk with God?

One of my favorite works of art is the Footprints in the Sand poem (the authorship is disputed, but the work itself is in the public domain, so I'll include it here). What a powerful reminder this is! 

One night, a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: One belonged to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life, there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened during the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him, and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that once I decided to follow You, You'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed You most, You would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child. I love you, and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.