The sole of your foot

The other day I heard someone read Joshua 1:1-9. I was struck by verse 3 (English Standard Version):

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I promised to Moses.

I often say to myself or others, "God will be with you every step of the way." The phrase "every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon" struck me anew.

Lately, I have been trying to draw more in my journal. Most recently, I tried to draw the scene I often imagine to bring myself into the presence of God —as I’ve mentioned before —walking along a path and turning towards a burning bush, as Moses did (Exodus 3). I am not a good draw-er! But I like letting my inhibitions about that go and putting something in my journal to remind me of the picture in my mind. For this attempt, I did a Google image search for a line drawing of someone walking to copy. Here is what I drew:

Don’t even get me started listing all the things I got wrong! But what I want to focus on is the sole of my foot in the drawing. I copied an image of a person walking away, and had to pay particular attention to that left sole in the act of walking.

See how it has a kind of oblong shape with a curved bottom line? Somehow that gives the illusion of a foot bent at the toes the way you do when you walk. Kind of cool.

I think that having drawn this image is why the verse about God giving us “every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon” caught my attention. That humble thing — the sole of our foot — reminds us God is with us wherever that foot goes. He loves every single inch of us.