“The footprints are still there,” the article began.

Whose footprints? And where?

The article was talking about the footprints of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the ten others who have walked on the moon.

Astonishingly, their footprints are still there. It’s been over 50 years since humans first walked on the lunar landscape, but the moon’s dusty surface is still marked with our historic bootprints.

How can this be?

After all, here on earth, footprints in the dirt can be washed away by rain days later. An imprint of a foot on a sandy beach might be erased in seconds by an incoming wave. Other people or vehicles can trample a footprint, cancelling it out.

But it’s different on the moon. The moon has no atmosphere, and therefore no breezes or rain to erode any footprints. Earth’s satellite also doesn’t get a lot of visitors, so no one else’s footprints or vehicle tracks have obscured those made half a century ago.

Scientists suggest that the lunar footprints of the astronauts might last a million years, maybe almost as long as the moon itself continues to exist.

That couldn’t happen here on earth. Or could it?

Are there footprints on earth that will last for millennia or eons, or even for eternity?

Yes.

The footprints of Jesus will.

Not physically, of course. It’s been 2,000 years since Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem, the shores of Galilee, and the dusty paths of Nazareth. His actual footprints have long since eroded.

But the footprints He cast in history are still here. Countless lives over the centuries have been changed by the fact that Jesus once walked on this earth.

The impact Jesus has had on history is incalculable. Even our years are counted from before and after His birth: BC (Before Christ), or AD (Anno Domini, which means “in the year of our Lord”).

Jesus left a big “footprint,” as it were. The biggest in history.

Which is amazing, because He wasn’t a political leader. He didn’t lead armies or conquer foreign lands. He didn’t even travel very far outside His home region. His followers were a rag-tag bunch who abandoned Him at the first sign of trouble from the authorities.

And yet He changed the world.

How did Jesus do that? Why do people still follow in His footsteps?

Ironically, it wasn’t because of what He accomplished when He was walking.

When He was a toddler in Bethlehem taking His first tentative steps, only His parents noticed.

When He was a young man working as a carpenter in His hometown of Nazareth, probably only a few people even knew who He was when He walked by.

When He was teaching people about the Kingdom of Heaven and performing miracles, crowds did start following Him as He walked from place to place, to be sure. But they could be fickle, shouting “Hosanna!” one day and “Crucify Him!” the next.

When He walked on water, it certainly made an impression on His disciples, but no tracks were left on the sea of Galilee.

No, Jesus left the most indelible footprints on this earth when His feet weren’t even touching the ground.

It was when He was hanging on the Cross, with His feet nailed to the beam, that He changed this world forever. His atoning sacrifice meant that people could have their sins forgiven and be granted eternal life if they believed in Him.

That offer still stands.

His footprints are still here.

Billions of people are following in His footsteps.

Are you?

© 2020 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.