One morning, I gazed out a window of our home at what looked like itty bitty diamonds glistening in the sun. It was, in fact, ice crystals sparkling atop the twelve plus inches of snow left behind from a storm. As much as I groan these days about the harshness of winter and all that it requires, I’ll admit the snow looked lovely that morning.
After lingering there a few minutes, I noticed something in the snow that hadn’t been there the day before. It was an unusual set of animal tracks. It wasn’t the tracks themselves that caught my attention, but how they appeared.
During the storm days earlier, I trudged through the snow to get food and water to our chicken coop. As I repeated this routine day after day, a path formed. Looking more closely at the tracks, it was obvious that whatever animal left them had followed my path. The tracks came out of the packed snow on one side but not the other. The animal had stayed on my path for some distance before veering off and forming its own fresh trail.
I’d never considered that an animal might follow a path I made. In a small and unintentional way, I’d helped a critter get where it wanted to go with less effort. It wasn’t that the animal couldn’t have made the journey on its own. It simply chose the easier way.
That quiet observation made me pause and look inward. It made me wonder about the paths I’m creating in other areas of my life. Am I making paths, intentionally or unintentionally, that help others move forward with a little less struggle?
Maybe the paths we make aren’t grand gestures or carefully planned efforts. Maybe they’re formed through faithfulness in ordinary routines, through kindness shown consistently, or through obedience in seasons that feel heavy. We never know who might be watching or who might step into the space we’ve already walked.
So today, I encourage you to be mindful of your choices. May the paths you leave behind reflect God’s love and make the way a little easier for those who follow. May we trust that God can use even our simplest steps to guide, comfort, and encourage others along the way.
