different kinds of footprints
North Country winters are not kind to my exercise plan. After gazing at the blank white yard and heavy gray sky this morning, I declared to Friend #7:
"I think I'll go kayaking today."
She was nonplussed and nary looked up from her toast. "Happy paddling there."
The rutted snow made walking difficult. The bitter cold didn't help either, but I was determined to get outside and stretch my lazy legs. As my head was tucked down into my scarf to avoid the seeping cold, I couldn't help but notice the turkey footprints strewn along my path. They were laughably big and prehistoric-looking and reminded me of splayed stars, the kind of stars that the magi followed on the Christmas cards of my youth. I visually followed their crooked path over the mounded snowbanks and into a turkey-sized opening in the brier bushes. No turkey in sight, but birdy footprints told their tale.
Footprints are in the news these days. Too many articles on measuring my personal carbon footprint have made me a rebel in a "ye are not of this world" kind of way. Rather than fret about how much jet fuel it took to cart me to Spain and back this summer or whether all my peanut-butter jars make it to the recycling bin , I resolve to don my eternity-glasses and think in more biblical proportions. What about a spiritual footprint?
For those who think that religious beliefs are so intensely personal that they shouldn't effect others, let me point out the One with the biggest footprint I know: Jesus. Signs of His "traveling through" are just about everywhere: on every main street (churches), on calendars ("year of our Lord"), in the history of every people, in our everyday language (for good or for bad), in the nightly news, in the bookstores, in the concert hall, on the radio, at weddings and funerals, in our most private moments. In our most public ones.
He is there with His fingerprint, impressing His holy image upon us, marking us with the moist fog of His very breath, sanctifying our human moments and measuring our mortal time by His omnipresence. And if all that were not enough, for those who respond to the invitation, He comes in to flow through us. A new way to leave fingerprints: from the inside out!
Will I leave a print in the snow that will outlast me?
"I think I'll go kayaking today."
She was nonplussed and nary looked up from her toast. "Happy paddling there."
The rutted snow made walking difficult. The bitter cold didn't help either, but I was determined to get outside and stretch my lazy legs. As my head was tucked down into my scarf to avoid the seeping cold, I couldn't help but notice the turkey footprints strewn along my path. They were laughably big and prehistoric-looking and reminded me of splayed stars, the kind of stars that the magi followed on the Christmas cards of my youth. I visually followed their crooked path over the mounded snowbanks and into a turkey-sized opening in the brier bushes. No turkey in sight, but birdy footprints told their tale.
Footprints are in the news these days. Too many articles on measuring my personal carbon footprint have made me a rebel in a "ye are not of this world" kind of way. Rather than fret about how much jet fuel it took to cart me to Spain and back this summer or whether all my peanut-butter jars make it to the recycling bin , I resolve to don my eternity-glasses and think in more biblical proportions. What about a spiritual footprint?
For those who think that religious beliefs are so intensely personal that they shouldn't effect others, let me point out the One with the biggest footprint I know: Jesus. Signs of His "traveling through" are just about everywhere: on every main street (churches), on calendars ("year of our Lord"), in the history of every people, in our everyday language (for good or for bad), in the nightly news, in the bookstores, in the concert hall, on the radio, at weddings and funerals, in our most private moments. In our most public ones.
He is there with His fingerprint, impressing His holy image upon us, marking us with the moist fog of His very breath, sanctifying our human moments and measuring our mortal time by His omnipresence. And if all that were not enough, for those who respond to the invitation, He comes in to flow through us. A new way to leave fingerprints: from the inside out!
Will I leave a print in the snow that will outlast me?
posted by thisrequiresthought at 2:15 PM
4 Comments:
Absolutely!
fingerprints...from the inside out, I like that and want to ponder upon that one some more...
2 Things:
1. Amazing soup. Really amazing. I ate two big bowls of it. Yum.
2. I need an e-mail address for your Bubsie.
brietta: 4jezuz@gmail.com
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