Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a good-fellow when it came to popular poetry, but a strange-fellow when it came to religion. He belonged to the Unitarian Church, professing unitarian monotheism, not trinitarian monotheism; that is faith in God the Father, but not faith in God the Son nor God the Holy Spirit. That said, he was an inspiring-fellow when it came to anthropology, as he shows in his poem, A Psalm of Life.

The poem includes an image of footprints on a beach – but different to that famous poem that bears the same name – and holds the warm thought that our lives can be an encouragement to others. “Lives of great men all remind us / We can make our lives sublime / And departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time. // Footprints, that perhaps another / Sailing o’er life’s solemn main / A forlorn and shipwrecked brother / Seeing, shall take heart again.”

Could that be ever said of us? It was certainly said of Jesus. The writer to the poor Hebrew Christians who were shipwrecked on the shores of the Roman Empire, set before them a picture. Keep your eyes on those footprints that bear the mark of a leather sandal made in Nazareth. The one who wore them walked through this world bravely and without sin. And he will hold you fast and lead you home. “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…. strengthen your weak knees” and walk on.