Just a Pair of Shoes
God often uses the smallest things for the biggest lessons.
My son was 14 and, overall, a good kid, but he was a typical teenager in so many ways. He was loud, brash, invincible, and seldom seemed to think about anything outside himself.
On a positive note, he wasn’t afraid of hard work. He wanted an expensive and wholly unnecessary pair of shoes. Knowing we wouldn’t purchase them without it being a birthday or Christmas gift — he started finding ways to earn the money. He mowed yards, cleaned the garage, and did other odd jobs until he had the money to purchase them.
This happened over 15 years ago, and I still remember his excitement when he left the store with them. A few days later, he went on a one-day mission trip with our church. Our congregation had collected clothes, shoes, and jackets and then met that morning to prepare sack lunches for a large homeless population in a nearby large city.
The youth loaded into vans and headed off to distribute the gifts. Our entire family had participated in this many times, so this trip wasn’t anything out of the normal for him. We picked him up from the church parking lot that night, and as he climbed into the SUV, I realized he was wearing only socks on his feet. My first thought was that the new shoes must have started hurting his feet, and he’d…
