As Nik Wallenda walked a small tightrope above Niagara Falls June 15, the ABC microphones picked up the daredevil talking to someone who wasn’t visible – Jesus Christ.
“Thank you, Jesus, my righteous king,” the heir to the tight rope-walking family said. I thought about how often that’s said on national and international television. Usually it’s an athlete after he’s done something pretty dramatic. This was a guy walking above one of the most impressive- and ominous – visuals on earth and all he could do was talk to Jesus.
It made me think of the footsteps poem so many children read:
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints.
Other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life
When I was suffering from anguish, sorrow, or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord, “You promised me, Lord,
That if I followed you, you would walk with me always.
But I noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
There have only been one set of prints in the sand.
Why, When I have needed you most, you have not been there for me?”
The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints
Is when I carried you.”
Nik Wallenda might have seemed to have been walking by himself, but he realized he was being carried across those falls and into history.