. .
..
..
One night a man had a dream.
. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
.Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
.For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand:
.one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.
..
.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
.he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
.He noticed that many times along the path of his life
.there was only one set of footprints.
..
.
.
.
.
He also noticed that it happened
.
at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
.
This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it:
.
"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you,
.
you'd walk with me all the way.
.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
.
there is only one set of footprints.
.
I don't understand why when I needed you most,
.
you would leave me."
.
.
.
.
The LORD replied:
.
"My son, my precious child,
.
I love you and I would never leave you.
.
During your times of trial and suffering,
.
when you see only one set of footprints,
.
it was then that I carried you."
..
.
The text describes a someone's dream, in which the person is walking on a beach with the Lord. Naturally, they leave two sets of footprints in the sand behind them. Looking back, the tracks are stated to represent various stages of this person's life. At some points the two trails dwindle to one, especially at the lowest and most hopeless moments of the character's life. When questioning the Lord, believing that the Lord must had abandoned his follower during those times, the Lord, gives the true explanation: 'During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you'.
.
While critics may dispute the literary merits of the piece, it remains enormously popular, especially among American Christians. There are multiple variations of the text.While most variations of the poem are in third-person, with a male playing the role of the Lord's follower, original editions, particularly that of Margaret Fishback Powers, have written it in first person. All claimed authors, except Burrell Webb, are ironically female. The publisher received the poem with instructions from the author to publish with the (author unknown.) it was published in third person.
