![]() ![]() That night there were footsteps outside the shed in which we were staying. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. (Luke 2.4)Īnd we arrived and not a moment too soon. But three days walking at a slow pace, looking all the time at her, to see if she was ok, watching where I was treading, it wasn’t easy. It was a journey I knew because it was the way that I went when I went up to Jerusalem. So even though she was due to give birth to a baby in just a short time I had to get her on the back of the donkey and lead her from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It was a lot to ask of her but we had no choice, I had no choice. There was a lot further to travel, to tread. Some of the men stirred as they heard me sing but were as soon again snoring. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow meĪnd I shall dwell in the house of the Lord The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.Įven though I walk through the darkest valley, It has been the caves that have provided the shelter we needed and the place to rest and as my companions slept I picked up my harp and I sang The priest gave him the holy bread for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. (1 Samuel 21.6) I was younger then and now I had not sheep but men to look after, men to feed and protect. It was hard on the feet, on those rough hills, where I had once looked after sheep. Then with those who supported me we made it into the hills. I had fled King Saul but not until I had embraced Jonathan, the one I loved, perhaps for the last time. I can’t wait to stand on new soil, to make my mark in a new land, to carry my children to freedom, as I was carried to freedom and to see footprints that won’t be washed away. He is long gone but these sandals will carry me a long way, to the land we have been promised. Now I am a man and I wear my father’s sandals. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink-so that you may know that I am the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 29.5-6) I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. Then we walked by day, by night, in blistering heat and blistering cold. ![]() I remember it now, the terror, the horses, the screams of our neighbours and then the roar of water retreating and the soft riverbed beneath us, the footprints of hundreds, thousands, there to see, for a moment, until the water returned and obliterated them, never to be seen again. I was a child when this walk began, when my mother snatched me up by night and, with hardly anything to carry, we headed from the city out into the sands and to the great river. It was a walk to freedom, so we were told, but it felt hard. My feet fell on harder ground, none of the soft impression, but a less forgiving rock was beneath my feet. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man. (Genesis 3.23) We could see the marks our footfall had left, gently changing the landscape of this newly made world.Īdam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3.8)Īnd we saw another footfall, sparkling with divine presence, adding to the marks we had left, on the soft grass of the garden.īut we had to leave and walk on harder ground. We looked at the dew covered grass, the place where we had been walking. These are the connections that I made as I sat looking at the work which has captured the way in which the stones of the Cathedral have been marked by the feet that have trodden them over the centuries. On Palm Sunday evening at Southwark Cathedral, before we finished the day with Compline, I led a meditation alongside this year’s Lent art installation, ‘Footfall’, by Alison Clark. ![]()
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