Habakkuk 3:19

Happy Feet

He maketh my feet like hinds' feet. Habakkuk 3:19.

Some of you girls are not a little proud of your feet. When you get a new pair of shoes you stick your feet well out in front of you and hope that others are noticing how nicely shod you are, how well tied your laces are, or how smart your buckles. And when you and your friends get together in a bunch and the talk happens to turn on boots, you are anxious to let everyone know that though you are tall for your age you take only size three.

Now it is a very natural thing to be proud of your feet. You began it at a very early age when, as a baby of a few months old, you held out your little feet for admiration when visitors asked, “Where's baby's pretty new shoes?” It is a natural thing to be proud of your small feet, but it is a more excellent thing, even although you take sixes and cannot boast a high instep, to see that your boots and shoes are always neat, that they are nicely polished, that the laces are tidily fastened, and that the heels are not down at the side. Even although you can't afford many pairs of shoes and those you do have are patched, you can make the very best of them.

I once knew a girl called Nellie whose feet were her great sorrow. They were large and flat and badly shaped, and somehow she could not forget them; and a foolish remark of her father's would keep repeating itself in her brain. “Oh, any kind of shoes will do for Nellie! She has such ugly feet.” If Nellie had only known it, her feet were the most beautiful feet in the family, for they were feet that were ever running errands for other people. They were feet that were always tiring themselves by doing deeds of love.

Our text today is about feet. The prophet Habakkuk said that God had made his feet “like hinds' feet.” What did he mean? Well, if you have ever watched a deer springing over the heather or leaping from rock to rock on the hillside, you will know what he meant. He meant that his steps were light and springy and sure, like the feet of the fallow deer. They were swift and glad Why? Because he knew that God loved him and was caring for him, and in return he loved and trusted God. And so his heart was full of joy, and the joy got into his steps.

As I said already, it is good to have small feet and it is better to have well-tended feet, but it is best of all to have feet like the prophet Habakkuk feet that are swift and joyful. The small feet may trip in life's journey, the well-tended feet may lag, but the feet like hinds' feet will spring along life's road all the day and all the way.

Did you ever notice in a city street the difference in people's walk? Some lift their feet as if they carried flat irons instead of feet. Others drag their feet as if they were fastened to the pavement by invisible chains. But some step so lightly that they seem hardly to touch the ground. You feel that if these people were about your age they'd be jumping and dancing for joy. They may be going to their work, or they may be going to amuse themselves, but whatever be their errand, they are stepping along briskly and gladly. And the secret of the light step is just the glad heart. The heart that loves its errand makes the feet that are swift and springy.

Three hundred years ago there lived in Rome a school of great painters and sculptors. These painters and sculptors have left us many wonderful paintings and glorious statues, but they have left us also a Latin phrase which they used to describe the spirit in which they did their work. They said they did it con amore. Con amore, with love, that is how they achieved such masterpieces.

Our work on earth here may be very humble, our name may never be heard of beyond our own little circle of friends, but yet we can be like these wonderful artists of old, we too can do our work,

we can play our games, we can serve God and our fellow-men con amore. Then joy will be in our hearts and gladness in our steps, and, like the Jewish prophet, our feet will be “like hinds' feet”