When I was a young man I spent a summer in northern Manitoba and while I was there I had an opportunity to go to Little Black River on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg. One of the things I heard about the place beforehand was that on the shore of the lake was a footprint left by Manitou - God the Creator. This was interesting to me and I imagined how it would be - maybe a large foot-shaped area with trees growing in it or something you would need to look at from the air or maybe a foot-shaped lake of some sort. Whatever it might be, I expected a cool geological feature that would be hard to appreciate because of its enormous scale in keeping with the size and majesty of God. The people I was with just shrugged and said I would have to wait and see it in person.

When we got there, the other purposes of the trip took up most of our time but finally, somebody said we should go down and see the Manitou footprint by the lake. So we walked down to take a look. We walked out onto those huge shelf-like exposed bedrock areas of the Canadian Shield down by the shore and suddenly in the middle of nowhere one guy said, “Okay here it is.” I couldn't find anything.

I looked all around to see whether maybe we were standing in the middle of God's footprint or maybe needed to climb up on something to appreciate its scale but there didn't seem to be anything to see. Then I saw that the rest of the group was standing in a little circle looking at the rock. I went over to look and what I saw there was a small depression and in the middle of it, a little perfectly formed footprint exactly like you would see if Noelle or Austyn [both 3-year olds from MEMC] walked through a muddy area with socks on. A single footprint of a very small child in the granite bedrock. That's all there is to see.

Over time, a quiet tradition has grown up that it is the footprint of God the Creator who made it when all things were new and God was going back and forth across creation seeing what there was to see. Some of the people I was with had brought tobacco which they left in memorial and had a thoughtful moment of prayer and then we walked back to where we were staying and that was the end. You need to know somebody who knows where it is and they need to take you there personally. I took a picture of it at the time which I lost afterward so I thought surely for this article I could find something on Google images but there's nothing there that I could see.

You need to know someone who knows where it is and they need to take you there personally to experience it. It's not different from other formative faith experiences in that way.

I don't know how much planning goes into that tradition or if there's some great conspiracy to keep the location and image secret. I would not be able to find it again if I was in the area and there's no parking lot or signage or paved pathway or non-denominational shrine or interpretive center. The people I was with at the time weren't into making a big production of things and this was no exception. What I do know is that when people read out loud Scripture passages where The Lord God Almighty speaks I think about that experience as the reader uses their best big resonant bass Charleton Hesston / Morgan Freeman announcer voice for the words that God says. I don't want to criticize that tradition and maybe God does sometimes speak with a huge slow resonant bass voice booming out over the multitudes in magisterial power.

However, it's also worth considering that we just finished the season of the year in which we recall that God appeared as a human infant. A child to a poor family who grew into a smart-alecky kid and then into a young adult who little children and vulnerable people felt comfortable with.

What if the voice of God is tiny and squeaky high? What if the voice of God speaking creation into being sounded like singing rather than spoken words? What if the angel of the Lord appearing to Mary to announce the upcoming birth of Jesus was a wee tiny little girl who needed to stand on the table in order to speak face to face with her? What if the presence of God who wrestled with Jacob all night long was a little short stocky kid? What if the presence of God in the middle of forming all creation is like a small child playing?

It's the beginning of a new year. We believe, in faith, hope and love, that God is present with us now as we enter the uncertain future before us. Are there tiny footprints?