What tracks are you leaving?
It’s been a snow-less January in Chicago. I miss snow, for all kinds of reasons. (I say that even as I sit in sunny Florida writing this message!) We had a few good snows back in December, and one of those snows offered me an important reminder.

The snow came overnight. As I paused the next morning on the second floor landing, surveying the backyard covered in snow, I looked down on the garage roof and saw at least two different tracks in the snow. I figured one was probably from a squirrel. I’m not sure which of God’s creatures made the second set of tracks. When I went out the back door, preparing to shovel the back entrance to our home and the driveway, I encountered more tracks. One of the dogs in our neighborhood had been visiting. And a petite set of tracks leading up to the garage suggested that a mouse had sought refuge in our garage.

It’s likely that the squirrel, dog and mouse — along with a few other creatures — regularly visited our backyard. But without the newly-fallen snow, I wasn’t aware that they had been visiting. That got me thinking about others of God’s creatures and my own life. Who is touched by my life, who comes through my life and the tracks are not seen but for the lack of newly-fallen snow?

Our lives create a witness, whether we intend to or not. The way we drive, the food we purchase, the clothes we wear — these are but a few of the choices we make each day that make a witness. So, too, the kind word we offer a checkout clerk, the seat we give up for an anonymous woman on the train, or the tip left for a food server or housekeeping staff. These acts and words leave an imprint, much like the tracks in the snow. We may never really know the impact of these words and acts, yet they form a witness. What tracks are you leaving today?