Invisible steps.
When I was a kid, I loved watching magicians.
And one of my favourites was Dynamo. As far as I was concerned, he was one of the best magicians around.
There was one trick where he appeared to walk on water. And as a young Christian watching this on television, I remember being amazed and slightly terrified at the same time.
I was sitting there thinking, “Oh crap. I thought only Jesus could do that.”
Obviously, it was an illusion. One proposed explanation for the trick is a transparent platform positioned just beneath the surface of the water, hidden from the people watching.
The idea is that the platform is close enough to the surface for him to walk on it, but concealed beneath the water so you cannot see what is supporting him.
To the audience, he is stepping onto nothing.
But beneath his feet, there is something solid.
Invisible steps.
And having walked with God for most of my life, and grown up in a family that has walked with Him, I cannot help thinking about how often life with God feels like that.
God calls you to take a step. You look in front of you, and all you can see is water.
No path. No visible foundation. Nothing that explains how you are supposed to put your weight there and stay standing.
And immediately, you feel afraid.
“God, if I step out there, I am going to fall straight through. There is nothing there to hold me.”
But what if there IS?
What if the step is already there, and the only thing missing is your ability to see it?
Think about that hidden platform for a moment.
Whether you can see it or not makes absolutely no difference to its ability to hold your weight. It does not become solid when you notice it. It was solid before you knew it was there.
But if you are standing at the edge, refusing to put your foot down until your eyes can prove there is something beneath the water, you might never discover what could have held you.
And I think this is where faith comes in.
Sometimes God calls you to move before He lets you see what will support you.
He asks you to trust His word before you have the reassurance of feeling the ground beneath your feet.
The step comes FIRST. The discovery comes AFTER.
You lift your foot from somewhere familiar. You move it towards somewhere that looks incapable of holding you. Everything you can see tells you to stay where you are.
But you take the step because you trust the One who told you there is somewhere to stand.
And as you put your weight down, you find your feet.
There IS a foundation.
You thought you were stepping into empty space, but you were stepping onto something God could see all along.
That is the part I find beautiful.
The truth is, taking a step of faith is really just an illusion, because there was an invisible step there the whole time. It just required faith for you to believe what you cannot yet see.
And sometimes, I think the reason God leaves the step invisible is because that is the TEST.
Will you trust Him more than what you can see?
If He showed you the entire platform, every step and exactly where it would lead, you could walk forward relying on your own view of the path.
But when you cannot see it, you have to trust His.
We say, “God, show me the ground, and then I will step.”
Sometimes He is saying, “Take the step, and you will find the ground.”
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7.
We WALK. We move. We put our weight somewhere our eyes cannot yet reassure us about.
And then we reach the next step.
Because finding your feet once does not mean God suddenly shows you the whole staircase.
You are standing on something that held you. But in front of you, there is water again.
Another conversation. Another decision. Another unfamiliar season. Another moment when you cannot see how you are going to be supported.
And again, He asks you to trust Him.
But this time, you have something to remember.
The ground beneath your feet was once the step you were afraid to take.
You could not see how you would get through that season. You did not know where the strength would come from. You had no idea how you would find your feet.
And yet, here you are. Standing somewhere you once thought you would sink.
That does not mean the journey was painless. It means you discovered support you could not see from where you started.
So why are we so quick to assume that the next invisible step must be the one that cannot hold us?
God has not brought you this far just to abandon you at the edge.
When He calls you forward, He knows what is beneath the surface. He knows how He will hold you, even when you cannot yet see how you will stand.
You do not have to remove every question before you move. You do not have to feel the ground beneath your next foot while keeping both feet exactly where they are.
There comes a moment when trust has to become a step.
And if that is where you are right now, I want to encourage you. What looks like nothing in front of you may simply be another invisible step God is asking you to trust Him with.
Take the step of faith.
Let your feet discover what your eyes cannot see.