Walking Shoes

“Where are my shoes?” my son asked as he hurriedly grabbed what he needed in order to survive another day at school. Knowing he was already agitated about other items he hadn’t been able to locate, I quickly laid his footwear out before him. “There’re right here,” I answered, hoping to calm him somewhat before he headed out to where his friend waited patiently for him in the car.

Laying out my son’s clothes and finding missing footwear have been a part of my life since his birth seventeen years ago. For years now I’ve rummaged for clean jeans, missing  jackets, and lost socks and shoes of all sorts and sizes. Especially the shoes. I’ve set out school shoes, tennis shoes, soccer shoes, and work shoes. But more important than any of those are the spiritual footwear I’ve laid out for him to walk in.

The Bible tells us that as Christians our feet need to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Sometimes, as was the case this morning, that peace is a little hard to find. So all his life I’ve been placing spiritual shoes before him by teaching him to look for it in the pages of his Bible, dig into the promises of God and unveil the hope for the future that God’s Word contains. He’ll find that the spiritual walking shoes he’s been missing have been waiting for him there all along.

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." 

(Proverbs 22:6 KJV)

Turtle Crossing

I marveled that the little box turtle lumbering his way across the road hadn't yet been run over by the high-speed traffic. Stopping my van opposite the little creature I jumped out to lift him to the grassy berm on the side. Legs tight inside his shell by the time I reached him, only his head poked out to watch my approach. Paralyzed by fear of the cars that zoomed around him or simply too exhausted to go on, it looked like he’d decided to rest awhile right where he was.

I, too, once left the secure life I had known and wandered into dangerous territory. The layers of protection I carried around me – experiences I thought would shield me from the hazards I’d meet along the way - could not get me safely to where I desired to go. My only hope was the help offered from above. I looked up and accepted the free ride.

We must be willing to point others we come across in our journeys towards that Hand that reaches down to rescue them from the circumstances in which they find themselves. It’s the only way some of them will ever reach the Other Side.

"Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes." 

(Psalm 17:7 NIV)

Treasure Here

My favorite photo from our recent vacation has nothing to do with the family, friends or scenic vistas we visited. In fact, I’m not even sure why my son captured the image on film. His brother had taken a piece of driftwood from along the beach and marked a big “X” in the wet sand with the words “Treasure Here” written beside it.

Reminiscent of pirate maps that directed the treasure seeker to the location of hidden wealth, the photo prompted thoughts of another treasure map in my possession: my Bible. Following the directions found in its pages likewise directs the seeker to a treasure trove of incredible riches. Clues to health, wealth, life and true love are all hidden in its pages.

In days of old it was the one who possessed the map who knew how to find the bounty, while other treasure hunters had to stumble along largely in the dark, piecing together clues as they could find them and gathering information from those they could glean from in passing. So many fall in that latter category today, spiritually, seeking truth from others they come across when in fact the map to true riches is easily available to all in the pages of God’s Book.

I plan to clip that photo to the front of my Bible to remind myself that truly there is “treasure here”…if I’ll just take the time to dig into what’s buried inside.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
(Matthew 13:44 NIV)