Shoes

Hear it on Sunday, Use it on Monday…

I just love this photograph.  I always thought that if I were planning a wedding, I would do it outdoors, in a bucolic setting.  Lots of green space, but with trees and shade nearby. And I’d have all members of the bridal party wear colorful Keds, like these.  Men and boys wearing them with their suits, and women and girls wearing them with their dresses. I would have Gerbera Daisies on the tables in mason jars, and lots of candles. That makes such a pretty picture.

The reality is that my husband and I eloped, and our ceremony was about 3 minutes long.  We didn’t live near friends or family, so we never had a bridal party or even a wedding dinner.  For 26 years we’ve said maybe someday we’d get around to it, but we haven’t yet!

Our wedding story was not the expected fairy-tale event, but we cherish our memories of that day, and we love our story.  But unless you asked us, would you assume we had a traditional wedding event? Probably.

Everyone has a different life story, a different walk.  Everyone’s shoes fit and wear differently. We can’t assume we know exactly what wear and repairs are expected of shoes that are being worn on a person’s life journey.

This past Sunday, our pastor spoke about shoes.  Flip-flops… actually about someone who wore flip flops.  Someone whose shoe-story was completely different from my own…

John the Baptist’s birth was unique, and he had a unique calling.  Clearly his walk was different (as were his shoes!). And because most of us are familiar with his story, we don’t give any thought to the ability of our own stories to be as special or as necessary.

But we are so wrong.

As our pastor put it on Sunday, we are all God’s “limited edition”. God created us to be who we are, as we are, and He loves everything about us.  He has a unique purpose for us, just as He did for John the Baptist.

It is our choice to choose to embrace the unique attitude that God’s wants us to embrace. As we yield to God and surrender to His grace, we come to resemble more closely that unique attitude that matches our unique calling.  By choosing to yield to God, it is like choosing which pair of shoes we will wear each day.  If we choose the right shoes, our walk will not be parallel to God but will merge with His spirit, so that we ourselves are filled with His spirit.

We all follow our own unique paths that God has planned for us.  By becoming responsive to the spirit and obedient to His word, our shoes will become so much more comfortable… because we will be getting closer to becoming the people we were meant to be.

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