Footsteps Worth Following

Asked to leave home for an unknown land. Asked to wait 25 years for a promised son. Asked to offer that same son back to God.

Obeyed before he understood. Believed God could raise the dead even when the knife was raised.

Forty years in a palace. Forty years in a desert. Forty years leading a stiff-necked people through one.

Refused Egypt's pleasures. Confronted Pharaoh. Stood between God and Israel over and over.

A jealous king hunting him. A great sin staining him. A son rising against him.

Sang in caves. Repented in dust. Worshipped in victory. Wrote half the Psalms in the in-between.

A genocidal decree against her people. A throne where one wrong word meant death.

Fasted three days. Walked into the king's court uninvited. Said the words that saved a nation.

Exile as a teenager. A king's seductive table. A lions' den at old age.

Purposed in his heart not to defile himself. Prayed three times a day with windows open. Refused to dim his light.

A virgin pregnancy and the shame attached. Watching her sinless Son crucified.

Said yes: "Be it unto me according to thy word." Pondered everything in her heart. Stood at the cross when most had fled.

A past as a persecutor. Beatings, shipwrecks, prisons, a thorn that never left.

Counted it all loss. Pressed on. Wrote half the New Testament from chains.

A denial in his worst moment. The eyes of his Lord across a courtyard fire.

Wept bitterly. Returned. Preached at Pentecost. Three thousand were saved.

Brothers who hated him. A pit. A false accusation. A forgotten prison cell.

Stayed faithful in the dungeon. Used what he had where he was. Forgave the unforgivable.

Widowhood. Foreign land. Empty future. Hard work in another man's field.

Refused to leave Naomi. Worked in the fields. Became great-grandmother of King David.

A barren womb. A rival who taunted her. Years of unanswered tears.

Poured out her soul before the Lord. Made a vow. Gave back what she received.

A nation in idolatry. A queen who swore his death. Burnout under a juniper tree.

Called fire from heaven. Then collapsed in exhaustion. Then heard God in the still small voice.