Footprints... A Brand New Dance

One night I had a dream. It was a strange dream because although I was in it, I could at the same time see myself and Jesus walking down an uncertain road leading just over the horizon. As I stood astonished, looking at myself, I noticed that I looked winded as I walked along, barely catching my breath. Curious as to why, I took my eyes off the walkers and peered back down the way from whence they had come.

The sight that met my eyes is quite difficult to describe. From where I stood the ground dropped back steep, down a jagged path. The drop was so great and sheer that it made my stomach queasy just looking. I staggered, stumbled and would have fallen if my guide had not reached out to steady me.

I gained my composure and looked closer at the path Jesus and I had taken. The ground was loose like gravel, and I wondered how one could have kept his footing. Not to mention there were mud puddles and brier patches along the way and low hanging limbs that feign reached out to offer a hand but looked as if they would snap under the slightest weight. The ground was so moist I could see the footprints we had left along our journey. For most of the way Jesus’ footprints went along steady, sure, consistent (I could tell they were His by their size). Mine, on the other hand, zigzagged, stopped, back-peddled and even turned around on occasion.

As we went along my ability to follow His lead appeared to improve, which was a good thing because it was just about then that the path narrowed and the road steepened. To add to the perils of our path the rocks perched high above seemed to rain down sporadically. For a while I could barely discern my footsteps because they overlay His. Where He stepped, I stepped in sync on up the mountain, until it seemed the road grew most treacherous at which point it appeared that my steps were all over the place. There were starts and stops and circles and deep gashes every which way in the soft earth. I wondered, "What could I have been doing?"

It was then that I turned to my guide to satisfy my wonder. “What on earth happened?” I asked. “We were getting along pretty well—I was growing in Him, as well I should—then it looks like I lost my mind. And it looks as if I would have killed us both if He hadn’t regained control.”

My Guide looked at me and said, “Don’t be deceived by what your eyes think they see or what your head thinks it knows about the way our journey should unfold. As long as I am with you, I am always in control. Speak to your heart; it knows the truth. Did ever you desire anything other than to walk with me? Then don’t think it strange that sometimes the Way leads off the usual path. What happened, you ask, when our steps seem uncertain? It was there... we DANCED!”



"Revelations," by Sterling A. Brown

"Why do folks call you revelations?"
"It used to be because I preached from that Book. But now because I reveals."
TALKS WITH THE VILLAGE HALFWIT

I shall recall
As a sinister omen,
That which was pity
For full-bosomed women,—

That which was laughter
For idling men;
Bundle of rags,
And tattered brain,

Cadaverous cheeks,
And bloodshot eyes,

And wide mouth mumbling

Obscenities,

Or echoes from childhood's
Store of rhyme
Or scraps of religion
Near sublime. . . .

I shall remember
Troubledly, long,
His cracked voice
Wheezing out his song:

"You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yo'self
Nobody heah can a-walk it for you
You gotta walk it by yo-self."

And this comment
From wisdom not his own
"Man wanta live,
Man wanta find himself
Man gotta learn
How to go alone."

Always now with me
The halfwit's text,
Sour truth for my wits
Poor, perplexed,

"If man's life goes
Beyond the bone
Man must go lonely
And alone,
Unhelped, unhindered
On his own. . . ."

-Sterling A. Brown