It was the very next day, and it was the coldest day so far this year, with temperatures, considering the wind chill, dipping down as low as –27º C. “You’re crazy!” I muttered to myself as I turned off the main road to run into the cemetery. “You should have learned your lesson from yesterday’s cold! You could be at home where it’s warm! But no! Here you are again . . .” But my eyes were drawn downward, to the road under my feet, and what I saw distracted my mind from its “lecture”. I was following another set of footprints.

“You already know they’re your own,” I chided myself gently. “We went through this yesterday! Now go on! It’s too cold to be examining footprints today!”

But as I continued down the road, the lesson from the day before came vividly back to my mind. Did my interactions with people shine of Jesus? Did I leave “Jesus” footprints on the lives I touched? Then I noticed that there were places where the tracks were easier to see than others. In fact, there were spots, sometimes even entire sections of road, where I couldn’t see any footprints at all! I looked up at the sky as that feeling I knew so well washed over me: God had another lesson for me to learn from the footprints in the snow!

“What is it, Lord?” I asked. “What else do you want me to learn?”

Immediately it came to me. There are times in my life that I DO leave footprints for Jesus. But there are other times when I do not. Take the times, for instance, when I interact with fellow believers. Yes. During those times, my Jesus footprints are well embedded in the lives of others. But what about my interactions with neighbors? Co-workers? Patients? Cashiers? I hung my head in shame, for I knew that in most of those cases, I don’t leave very big Jesus footprints. I am too busy trying to “fit in”, to “be cool”, to not be “different”!

“Oh Lord,” I murmured, squeezing back tears. “I’m sorry! Help me to leave BIG Jesus tracks on EVERY life you put in my path!”

What about you, friend? Do you leave Jesus footprints in some of your interactions, but not in others? If this is the case, then why not join me in my heartfelt prayer?

“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16)

Lyn Chaffart

(To access the entire “Footprints in the Snow” devotional series, please click here.)