I think I knew that a person’s gait was one of those unique human biomarkers, like a person’s finger-print, voice, and iris pattern, but it still surprises me. Surely two people on earth walk the same way. But they don’t. Which is why that gait-analysing corridor that appeared in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, was no mere fiction. I suppose when factors like weight, spinal alignment, length of limbs, and posture, etc, shape a person’s walking style, the idea that each individual has a unique gait becomes more believable.

With one exception. In the church, the gait of the family members is to be the same. Identical, recognizable, and patterned on the Master himself. The picture of course is not some clone army, nor a group of people devoid of individual personality, but of imitation of Christ, and solidarity in the stride to love God and our siblings in the faith.

One of the texts that I learned as a new Christian from the Book was this: ‘Walk worthy’; and the verses that followed spelled out what that that worthiness looked like. Things like humility, gentleness and patience were part of the walking pattern. And then followed things like the pursuit of unity with other Christians, and purity in relationships, and honesty in speech. Will there be a gait-analysing corridor leading up to the gates of heaven, that recognises love, but rings the alarm for hypocrisy? I don’t think so, but heaven will be watching for the worthiness of the walk.