I have to confess I have a quirk when it comes to collecting things. Every person has something that he or she holds dear. Some object that bears significant meaning to them. It may be photographs, or trinkets gathered during moments of meaning in their lives.
I love to collect Bibles, not just any Bible but those that belonged to people I respect and love. When asked after a relatives death if there’s anything that I would like to take to remember them by the answer is always immediate. If they have a Bible I ask for that.
You see, Bibles are oftentimes very sacred to people. They write notes on its pages of things that struck their fancy. They will leave written notes to themselves that have great meaning.
I was going through my great grandmother’s Bible and came across a wrinkled piece of unlined paper with a poem that she had written to herself. I imagined what she must have been going through in her life when she wrote it and for a little while we were able to share a personal moment together.
The note read this way.
“I walked a road of sorrow, a road so dark with care, and I was so, so certain that no one else was there. However when I looked around about me on this road on which I trod, I saw two sets of footprints, my own and those of God.
I know this poem sounds very much like a poem called “Footprints”, whose author we do not know. It makes me wonder if she played a part in the origin of it when she wrote it back in the 1800’s. I wonder what things she was going through when she wrote these words down, what kind of sorrow was she carrying. Did she feel alone on her journey. One thing I know for sure is that she gained reassurance in the fact that no matter where life’s journey took her she was never alone.
Everyone of us has a secret place in our life where we retreat. A place where we share our secret thoughts and feelings. No doubt your Bible has a few tear drops on its pages as you sought comfort in it as well. Even though I never was able to meet my great grandmother I can share in the knowledge that we were not all that different. Sometimes the road we travel is straight and the way unblocked. At other times it seems there are road blocks at every turn and the wind of adversity and suffering roars against us so much so that we find it hard to stand and face another day. However rest assured in this life you never travel alone, even when it seems everything is against you must remember God is still for you.