The foot-prints. . .
By Kirsten Nour Namskau
I know that some of you have read / heard this story before under "Author unknown". . .
I am the Author of this "story" which actually is a real dream I have had.
I told it the first time in 1991 in grade 8 in Pakistan International School in Egypt.
The lesson opened with that one of the girls started to cry and said that God didn't love her, since she was black and her family had to escape their country as refugees.
I looked at her, shocked by her words and reaction and said: "Nashma, God loves you. Either you are black or white, man or woman, young or old, sick or healthy, God loves you. . . "
It was then I desided to tell the following story. . . .
Many years ago . . .
My life was in a tumult and I tried to recover from the one trauma after the other. . . .
One night. . . . this dream came to me . . . .
I saw a long beach in front of me. Clean from the ocean’s flow and ebb during the night, without any sign of that anybody ever had been on that beach.
At one end of the beach, I saw an old man. . . . Whom I got absorbed by . . . got united with. . . until I became that old man . . .
I heard the voice of God say: “Start to walk the beach to the other side.”
I started to walk . . . and as I walked, my life passed review.
My childhood’s innocent, my youth revolutionary attitude, my young adult life as a parent and the days and years after. . .
Happy times, times of sorrow, traumatic times and times of fear and horror . . .
When I came to the other side, the voice of God said: “You can stop now, ‘The light of my heart’ . . . if you want to stop now, it’s OK . . . . but I would like you to continue for some more time. . . . Before you take any decision, I want you to turn around and take a look at the beach.”
I turned and looked at the beach . . . and started to cry violently.
In the sand on the beach, I could see all from the beginning . . . two pair of foot-prints.
My foot-prints and God’s foot-prints, side by side.
But also I could see that every time in my life, where life had been as toughest and hard to take . . . it was only one pair of foot-print in the sand.
I shouted to God: “Is this what you do to people? Every time life goes hard on us, you leave us . . . “
God put a calming hand on my shoulder and said: “ My dearest child. I never left you for a second. All from the beginning you can see two pair of foot-prints . . . but at the hardest time of your life, you can see only one pair of foot-prints . . . “
He continued: “That’s because, my dear . . . those times . . . . I was carrying you, because you could not walk by yourself. . . . It’s not your foot-prints . . . . It’s mine.”
K.N.
Many years ago . . .
My life was in a tumult and I tried to recover from the one trauma after the other. . . .
One night. . . . this dream came to me . . . .
I saw a long beach in front of me. Clean from the ocean’s flow and ebb during the night, without any sign of that anybody ever had been on that beach.
At one end of the beach, I saw an old man. . . . Whom I got absorbed by . . . got united with. . . until I became that old man . . .
I heard the voice of God say: “Start to walk the beach to the other side.”
I started to walk . . . and as I walked, my life passed review.
My childhood’s innocent, my youth revolutionary attitude, my young adult life as a parent and the days and years after. . .
Happy times, times of sorrow, traumatic times and times of fear and horror . . .
When I came to the other side, the voice of God said: “You can stop now, ‘The light of my heart’ . . . if you want to stop now, it’s OK . . . . but I would like you to continue for some more time. . . . Before you take any decision, I want you to turn around and take a look at the beach.”
I turned and looked at the beach . . . and started to cry violently.
In the sand on the beach, I could see all from the beginning . . . two pair of foot-prints.
My foot-prints and God’s foot-prints, side by side.
But also I could see that every time in my life, where life had been as toughest and hard to take . . . it was only one pair of foot-print in the sand.
I shouted to God: “Is this what you do to people? Every time life goes hard on us, you leave us . . . “
God put a calming hand on my shoulder and said: “ My dearest child. I never left you for a second. All from the beginning you can see two pair of foot-prints . . . but at the hardest time of your life, you can see only one pair of foot-prints . . . “
He continued: “That’s because, my dear . . . those times . . . . I was carrying you, because you could not walk by yourself. . . . It’s not your foot-prints . . . . It’s mine.”
K.N.
4 comments:
Interesting. Which god?
We had that story hanging on a plaque the bathroom back in the 70's Thats the first time I had seen that exact version though.
I guess it doesn't matter which God. So long as we believe in it.
I choose to believe that there is only one God, who has unlimited views of points. One that is everywhere, taking different forms, but one who will love all, and be any form so that He can be near us.
Nice dream.
The phosgene kid: LOL...That's a good question. Have you take it from my book??? LOL
Hammer: This is a dream I had long time before I told it to the class. I did tell it to some "friends" shortly after I had the dream, and I knew a priest had told the story in the church, as what has happened many times in my life, that a priest have used stories from my life. (They ask for permission though...Latest in 1997)
But when I told it to the class in 1991, that was the first time I told it official. What I didn't know, was that the class used to record the lessons.
Later a boy in the class had sent the story to a magazine, but forget to give the name of the author. He told me about the mistake, but I told him it didn't matter. I didn't know the story should become so known over the whole world.
But it still doesn't matter. What matter for me is that the story can give some hope to other people, as it did for Nashma.
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