"I walked where Jesus walked."

This was how a woman described her visit to the Holy Land. Recounting her vacation, she related in vivid detail how she had followed the Master's footsteps, having walked in villages and along roadways where He must have trod.Near Bethlehem, she paused at a field overlooking the city, trying to imagine what it must have been like to have stood in that field, or one like it, on that momentous night the Savior was born.

Later, climbing a path in the foothills of lower Galilee, she gazed over Nazareth, where the young Jesus "grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. . . ." (Luke 2:40.)

On a warm day, the woman walked a stretch of land bordering the Sea of Galilee. Joining a tour group, she traveled by bus to several of the cities nestled near that famous body of water, including Capernaum, which, because Jesus had resided there for a time after the beginning of His ministry, was called "his own city." (Matt. 9:1.)

The woman's journey took her to what is believed to be Jacob's well, the place where Jesus told a woman of Samaria, " . . . whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. . . . " (John 4:14.)

On and on, the tourist's itinerary took her to places made famous by the long-ago presence of the Master. She went to Caesarea Philippi, where Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. At Jericho, she stood under a sycamore tree, the same kind that Zacchaeus had climbed in order to see the Savior as He walked through the crowd. She spent a few hours in Bethany, home of the Savior's friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha.

Finally, the tourist spent several days exploring the steep and winding streets of Jerusalem, the city over which Jesus wept and in which He took His last steps in mortality while carrying the cross upon which He was to be crucified. She went to a hill that some people say is Calvary or Golgotha where He hung on that cross, and then to what is believed to be the Garden Tomb, from which the Savior arose that first Easter morning.

All these sites filled the tourist with awe and wonder. Many times as she related the experiences of her journey, she would say, "I followed in the Savior's footsteps," or "I walked where Jesus walked."

Certainly, she was in the vicinity where the Master lived and taught. She even might have stood on the same rock where He once stood, or seen a mountain range He once gazed upon. The experiences, in and of themselves, might be thrilling, but walking where the Savior might have walked is less important than walking as He walked. Emulating His actions is far more important than trying to retrace the remnants of the trails He traversed in mortality.

When the Savior extended to a certain rich man the invitation, "Come, follow me" (Luke 18:22), He did not intend merely that the rich man follow Him up and down the hills and valleys of the Judean countryside, or to sail across Galilee.

In our congregations, we sing:

" `Come, follow me, the Savior said.

Then let us in His footsteps tread,

For thus alone can we be one

With God's own loved, begotten Son. . . .

Is it enough alone to know

That we must follow Him below,

While trav'ling thru this vale of tears?

No, this extends to holier spheres. . . . " (Hymns, 116.)

How do we follow the Master? Must we save our money, schedule our vacations and embark on a long journey? It is well and good if we can go on such an excursion, but perhaps we best follow Him in our own neighborhoods, in our work places or in our schools, in our congregations and in our homes.

When we serve others - lift the weak, feed the hungry, comfort the bereaved, tend the sick, visit the prisoner - we are, in essence, following the Savior. In our own way, we are walking as He walked.

Each time we go to the temple, we enter the House of the Lord. Aren't we, then, following in His footsteps as we walk the corridors of His sacred house?

As we obey the commandments, are we not following the Master?

At the end of her journey, the tourist had an album of photographs and post cards, an assortment of souvenirs and many fond memories. What will we have at the end of our mortal journey in which we attempt to walk in the Savior's footsteps? Perhaps the answer is reflected in the final verse of the hymn:

"For thrones, dominions, kingdoms, pow'rs,

And glory great and bliss are ours,

If we, throughout eternity,

Obey His words, `Come, follow me.' "