Footprints In The Sand Poem by Isadora Quagmire

A man once dreamt beside the ocean's foam,
He walked the sands with God, far from his earthly home.
Across the heavens, moments of his life streamed,
A vibrant, moving vision—vividly dreamed.


He saw the path they walked all this time,
The sand imprinted in the salty clime;
For every scene, two distinct paths were laid,
The marks of his own steps, and the ones the Lord had made.


But when the long procession reached its end,
He turned to view the trails that stretched behind and spanned.
He noticed often, in the deepest plight,
The track dropped off, leaving a single line in sight.


This solitary print, he clearly saw,
Appeared when he was broken, weak, and raw;
The saddest hours, the burdens hard to bear,
Were the very times the Lord was not found there.


His heart was troubled, and he sought to know,
Why God would leave him when he was in deepest woe.
He cried, 'Dear Lord, you promised you would stay,
And walk beside me through the journey's way!


'Yet in the moments that were full of pain,
When troubles struck me like a beating rain,
I searched the path and did not understand,
Why you had failed to hold my trembling hand.'


The Lord replied, He said: "Do not weep.
My precious child, my vows I faithful keep.
I love you dearly; hear the truth I tell,
I would not leave you when your spirit fell.


'During those times of suffering and distress,
When you were burdened by your loneliness;
When you see only one set of prints defined,
It was then, my child, you were not walking behind.


'For in those hardest moments you endured,
When life's harsh tides against your strength arrayed,
It was I who carried you, comforted and assured,
And bore you up where only one pair of prints were laid.'


This poem is my rhyming adaption of the poem "Footprints" written by Mary Stevenson,1936