He Goes Before Us

I was not planning to post anything this week as there was no new inspiration for any illustration. To be honest, I am not exactly in great mood, perhaps the slight dissatisfaction at work, the seemingly "looming" situation at home, and ..., sigh... wish to have a pair of wings to just fly away at times like this... (Don't worry, I am fine, just not "over the moon" only).

Yet amid all the minute storms in life, and my fruitless attempt of trying very hard to put out the small fires here and there, I took my eyes off the One who cares for me most, My Shepherd, Jesus. Today, I heard a wonderful sermon, a topic that has never failed to touch me, the sermon of the Shepherd and His sheep. The call of a sheep, or rather the sheep's role in life is simply to follow the Shepherd, as simple as that.

Therefore, this explains the above illustration, one that captured my imagination today after hearing the sermon. I remembered years ago, I had a good friend in Secondary School, one of the few who attempted to introduce Jesus to me, she copied the entire story of "The Footprints In The Sand" in my autograph book, a story that never fails to touch me till today. It is about a man who had a dream, and in that dream there were always 2 pairs of footprints in the sand, however he noticed that when it came to crisis in his life, there is always only one pair of footprints. (The footprints in the sand illustrate his journey in life, one pair belonged to him and the other belonged to the Lord.) So he asked the Lord why was that so, did the Lord left him alone during his times of trouble? The Lord must have answered Him ever so tenderly and gently, with love in His eyes at that moment, saying that during those times of trouble, the Lord Himself was carrying him over, that explains the single pair of footprints.

I have also heard another story, about some primitive people who when attacking their enemies, they would walk in a single line, and stepped only on the footprints of the person who walked before them, this is to prevent the enemies from knowing the number of people they have, therefore leaving only one pair of footprints on the ground.

I am not attempting to illustrate the 2 stories above. The illustration is just a piece of my imagination earlier on as I was pondering on the sermon. Our role as sheep is to follow the Shepherd, as He will surely lead us through, and He will never leave us nor forsake us. Therefore in the above illustration, you see a pair of footprints in the sand, the sheep follows the way as the footprints of its Shepherd would lead, for the Shepherd goes before it. Hope you like the illustration.