Tracks of God

“Father,” said Thomas, looking up from his studies. “How do you know there is a God?” “Why do you ask that question? Do you doubt the existence of God?” asked the father. “Well, I heard one of the professors say that we could not be sure that there is a God. Is there any way really to know?”

“Well, my boy. Do you remember the other day that you were laughing about Robinson Crusoe’s dismay at discovering that there were other persons on the island beside himself? How did he discover them? Did he see them? No, he discovered one track of a bare foot in the sand, and he knew that only a human being could have made it, and he knew that whoever made it could not be far off, for the tide had not yet reached it. All those things he knew to be true, although he had not seen a human being within miles of the island. And the knowledge was all gained from a mark in the sand.

“If one print of a bare foot in the sand is absolute proof of the existence and presence of a human being, what are we to suppose when we see the prints of the Master’s shoe, as Bunyan calls it, covering the whole wide world? We see on mountain and valley the print of the fingers of God. We see a million plants and flowers and trees that only God could make grow. We see all the rivers and the springs of the world fed from invisible specks of atmospheric moisture. What do all those things mean—those millions upon millions of footprints on the clay of the world? They mean God living, present, ruling, and loving! They mean God and nothing else!”

- Author Unknown; via the Belvedere Beacon, the weekly bulletin of the Belvedere church of Christ, Belvedere, SC. Ken Chumbley preaches for this congregation, and he may be contacted at their website: http://www.belvederechurchofchrist.org