On Tuesday, I had a proud moment when I watched my son Mike walk across the stage at Queens University to accept his university degree. I thought I might have cried, but I didn’t—just a big smile and an immense feeling of pride.
I know so many reading these words can relate to my experience. The school may be different, the stage may be different, the age may be different, but in the month of June, thousands upon thousands of us are in the same boat, proudly watching our kids take a few steps that represent a much bigger journey. And we are all likely thinking the same thing, “wow, that went fast”.
Someone once said that football is a game of inches. It’s true. Sometimes, the biggest moments are defined by the smallest plays. In a similar vein, could we not say that life is a game of footsteps? What if we measured life not by the grandest moments but by its smallest steps? A baby’s first steps can send parents into the throes of joy. The little guy or gal may have only moved two feet, but to the watching parent, he or she has conquered Everest. Later in life, those footsteps may get bigger and bolder, but they are still just steps. We celebrate steps taken on balance beams, or in hockey skates. We cheer on steps taken around the bases, or across a dance floor.
Another step. Another goal. Another milestone. And before we know it, their steps are propelling them across a stage in cap and gown.
It doesn’t stop there. The steps continue. The thresholds are crossed. The milestones are reached.
Before we know it, they are walking down an aisle, ushered by a dad or mom barely holding back tears as their “baby” prepares for a new journey with a new person at their side.
Our steps mark the passage of time, whatever steps they may be:
Along a floor in bare feet.
Around bases in cleats.
Across a stage in a gown.
Down an aisle in a dress or tuxedo.
Over a threshold, up a set of stairs, around a bend.
Sometimes, we are walking towards something and sometimes away from something. Sometimes, we bound, sometimes we shuffle. Sometimes, our steps are taken solo, sometimes in partnership, and sometimes, we discover that the toddler we held, while they took their first steps, is now holding us as we take some of our last. The roles may have reversed, but the love is the same.
In the gospels, Jesus invites Peter to step out of the boat and join him on the water. With a deep breath, he does. He would stumble, and Jesus would rescue him, but kudos to Peter for taking a chance. Every step in life we take is a risk, but we take it because life is too short to stay in the boat.
As I watched Mike stride from one end of the stage to another, degree in hand, I pictured him from 22 years ago, pulling himself up on the living room coffee table and plonking his first foot forward in a valiant attempt to walk. He had the same smile on his face and the same look in his eyes, a mixture of pride and perseverance. Where will his next steps take him? What aisles, what thresholds, what passageways await? It’s a mystery. But as long as he keeps putting one foot in front of the other, he will indeed have a very special journey.
“When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
For your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone”
