THE CHILDREN'S FOOTSTEPS

The aged apostle John wrote a short and beautiful letter to a family of children with their mother. In it he said how glad he was to hear that some - perhaps all - of the household were "walking in truth". We can be sure that heaven, too, looked with pleasure on footsteps, small and larger, in such a path. The children not only spoke the truth, but also in their whole conduct they wished to be true to their knowledge of God as Father. His commandment is that we should love one another. We do not exactly need a command to love Him, but do so because He has first loved us and sent His Son to die for our sins.

Peter, a fisher of men, became also a shepherd. The lambs and sheep of Jesus became scattered in various countries so he fed them and led them together in their spirits by writing them an epistle, or letter. In it he told them to walk in the steps of the Master, so that they would not just follow one another but would go in the same path as the Good Shepherd who went before them. The word "model" used there by Peter about the Lord meant at first a writing from which to copy. Our danger is to copy from our own copy, or that of someone else!

The steps of the faith of Abraham are also an example to us. Perhaps the first one was 'obedience', others 'patience', 'prayer' and 'praise'. In fact the Lord Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced greatly in seeing "my day". How much greater this day must have been to him than the days of Ur, where he first lived, and the days even of Egypt. There he would have seen the Pyramids - already old by then, and great works of man - but really only tombs and monuments of dead kings. But Jesus is the King of kings and is living to the ages of ages.

As believers we have to "make straight paths for our feet". We sometimes stray, however, because we just follow our own feelings. Imagine three persons walking in a line, one after another. The first of them is Fact, because the truth is in Jesus and the work that He has completed; then comes Faith, looking closely and lovingly; lastly Feeling follows and is thus kept lively and true. Fact can never go astray, but if faith looks back at Feeling, what happens to them both?

J.C.Evershed