Footprints

to hear Amazing Grace

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 belonging 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 at 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 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."
© Margaret Fishback Powers
This poem perhaps was written Thanksgiving (Canadian) 1964 at Echo Lake Youth Camp, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The book, of the same name, is published by HarperPerennial, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 1993. The original title was "I Had A Dream." Footprints, started out as "I Had A Dream" by Edith Elma Fishback; the copyright came out in 1993 by Margaret Fishback. She wrote the book Footprints-The True Story Behind The Poem That Inspired Millions, and wrote this to her Mom and Dad inside the book: "To my Mom, Edith Elma Fishback and the sweet memory of my Dad, Clarence Henry Fishback." In 1987, Hallmark Cards asked for rights to use "Footprints" and the poem.
OR Mary Stevenson
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The Burning Hut

The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. Then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me!" he cried.

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

- Author Unknown -
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God Will Save Me

A dam has broken near a town and the townspeople start to evacuate, everyone except one woman who refuses to budge. "I've put my faith in God," she says. "He'll save me." The water comes rushing in and her house is deluged. She has to climb onto her roof to survive. Someone in a rowboat comes by and offers to take her away. "No," she says, "God will save me." The waters rise so that the woman has to climb on top of her chimney to get above them. People in a rubber raft float by and they throw out a life preserver to her. But the woman won't budge. "God will save me," she says. Finally a helicopter descends and throws down a rope ladder. Although she's now treading water, the woman still won't accept help. "God will save...," she gurgles, as she goes down under and drowns.

Now she's at the Pearly Gates and she's pretty upset. She confronts the Almighty: "I had faith in you, God. Why didn't you save me?"

"And what do you think I was trying to do?" God retorts. "I sent you a rowboat, a life raft and a helicopter!"

- Author Unknown