Footprints In The Sand

by Michael Ewetuga

A song in my language, I believe by I. K. Dairo says “a bachelor that has no wife (that’s the definition of a bachelor anyway, isn’t it?) that sleeps all alone, that is the enjoyment of life, the day you take a wife your problem will multiply”

This song seems to suggest that taking a wife is a sure way of multiplying a man’s problems. This, like every general statement, cannot be true.

There are all sorts of women and no matter how good or bad the ones we’ve been with are there are some that are better or worse out there. So, maybe choosing a wife is a matter of luck or perhaps matter of destiny.

No matter the trouble that comes with having a wife, I still think it is a good thing, I believe in the institution of marriage.

Whoever you agree created us or should I say no matter your theory for creation you must agree that the designer, if there’s one, recognizes the importance of companionship. In the only creation story that I read over and over again, the bible, God created Eve to compliment Adam. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Gen. 1:27

There are bad women just as there are bad men. Things were easy when God created man

and a woman for him, these days there are billions of men and women and it is only natural that while making that choice, like other choices, we sometimes make a bad one. But should this be a reason for us to give up on the comfort that we provide each other when we are together? I don’t think so

Even a child needs someone to show care and to shower them with love, I think it is an intrinsic thing, I think it is in born. When we are happy we need someone to share that happiness with, someone to laugh with us, someone to believe in us even when the whole world turns against us, someone that we can be sure no matter what, is in our corner.

When we are happy and we hurried to a friend’s house and he was not there, we called and he didn’t pick our happiness could lose it’s meaning when we go to bed at night, clutching nothing else but the pillow, our joy becoming ordinary because we have no one to share it with. Even in happiness we need someone to care, to listen and to be happy for us that things are going so fantastically.

When we are sad it is even worse. When we are sad we need someone to tell us everything will be alright even if it won’t be alright. I can’t imagine how losing someone that one is close to or that one holds dear could ever be alright but the voice of a friend in our ear whispering that everything will be alright is enough to make the pain bearable.

When we are going through a bad time a hug makes us feel so secure, it is so assuring, a kiss seems to melt our worries away, and when all is said and done and we go to sleep at night, the breathing of someone we love beside us makes life seems so bearable to live in.

I once lived with someone that I regarded as my Aunt, in Africa where I come from family ties are so very loose and you just don’t know what categories to place some people, so my Aunt she is.

She was married, at the time had been married to her husband for a very long time, had eight children between them. Sometimes either of them will come home late because they got caught up in something they were doing. I used to wonder then how or why anyone should wait so long for another person before he/she eats. This couple will not eat except together. Now I know that when you eat with someone you love the food tastes better than eating all alone.

When you are laughing and someone laughs with you your laughter has a ring to it, when you are sad and worried and you know someone got your back it makes the source of the worry less potent to cause unbearable grief. When a tear drops from your eyes and another is there with palm open to rub it away, the tear doesn’t drop with your heart because you know when it beats it beats for another person whose hearts beats for you.

An ideal world is one where everything goes right, the real world is where you never seem to have whatever it is you wanted, no wonder, sometimes people get frustrated and declare war against the world. Being alone is not something that a beautiful person deserves; a lonely life is undeserving of a lovely person.

Sometimes we feel like we are alone but we are not really alone, depending on what your faith is and what you believe in God is always with you and since he created someone to be there by your side pending the time you meet that person or if you have met that person but he’s not yet by your side, at least you know God is with you. One of the Christians’ paintings that I really love says:

“One night I had a dream. I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and across the skies flashed scenes from my life. In each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One was mine, and one was the Lord’s. When the last scene of my life appeared before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand, and, to my surprise, I noticed that many times along the path of my life there was only one set of footprints. And I noticed that it was at the lowest and saddest times in my life. I asked the Lord about it: “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you would walk with me all the way. But I notice that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why you left my side when I needed you most.” The Lord said: “My precious child, I never left you during your time of trial. Where you see only one set of footprints, I was carrying you.”

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