Elizabeth Barret Browning was born in 1806 in Durham, England. As a child, she was seriously injured in a riding accident and spent a great deal of her childhood confined to bed. An established poet, at forty years old, she married Robert Browning (an unknown poet at the time). After four years of marriage, Elizabeth Barret Browning published what is considered her best work, which includes the well-known verse, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Other words, perhaps less famous, are these: “The face of all the world is changed, I think, since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul.”
Written as a love poem for the husband who changed her very difficult life, the poem might be translated to the spiritual life. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will certainly recognize the importance of “hearing the footsteps” of Christ’s soul, the presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit.
Even non-believers cannot dispute that the footsteps of Christ have changed “the face of all the world.” What Jesus Christ said and did has been important to the world we live in!
Jesus came to change the face of our world. We find ourselves facing difficulties, struggles, and pains in life. God opens so many avenues of help, giving us persons to love and care for us, providing support, encouragement, and help. Let me count the ways! God places divine and holy footsteps onto our soul.
Psalm 27 says it this way: “The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the stronghold of my life. The Lord will shelter me in the day of trouble. The Lord will set me high on a rock. My heart says, ‘Come and seek his face.’”
Once, when Milward Simpson, former governor of Wyoming, was flying in a plane with his wife, the pilot announced that they were going to attempt an “unscheduled emergency landing.” At that moment, the governor wrote later, he took his wife’s hand and prayed with her a traditional prayer he memorized as a child. This is the prayer:
The love of God surrounds me.
The love of God enfolds me.
The presence of God watches over us.
Wherever we are, God is. Amen.
