Thursday was busy with cleaning and packing. I finally cleaned up some clutter in my bedroom and packed the clothes we would need for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I had packed the suitcase with everyone’s finest for we were going to The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. for the annual Washington Choral Arts Society Christmas Concert. Everyone’s dress shoes were placed in a bag, all together, and placed in the center of the walk way, as one would leave our house through the back door. We would have to trip over it to get out the door.
The concert was a matinee and so we needed to leave the house by 11:30 A.M. Around 9 A. M. I began laying out everyone’s clothes, not wanting to be in a stressed out hurry getting everyone ready.
I looked around for the plastic bag full of shoes…
My husband didn’t remember packing a bag of shoes.
Umm…. what?
NO SHOES.
We would usually pack the car and leave through the mud room door… but the wind was so bad that we packed and left through the basement… so we didn’t trip over the shoes…
Our day ahead called for semi-formal dress not crocs-and-tennis-shoes-casual dress.
Our youngest had no shoes at all, having been carried to the car and tucked into her carseat in her pjs, while sound alseep.
We hurriedly packed all the kids into the car and drove straight to the nearest Payless, and began praying: Lord please let everyone find shoes in this one store… we needed 5 pairs… I needed them too!!
This may sound like a fairly simple task, but it is difficult to find my oldest shoes. She has a wide foot but a narrow heel. She is 12 years old and I really don’t want her growing up too fast and footwear has been an area where I have dragged my feet… does a tween-ager really need to wear 3 inch heels? I have tried to keep her in low heels.
Wouldn’t you know, the only pair in the entire store that fit her looked like this:
The diameter of the heel is that of a pencil!!
Thank you, Lord, for helping us find her shoes…. all of us shoes… in less than 10 minutes.
Thank you Lord for meeting our needs… and blessing us with our desires as well… grace-gifts from your hand…
324. Shoes from above
Christmas Eve was a delightfully busy day; a whirlwind shopping spree for shoes, Christmas Concert at the Kennedy Center in DC, Dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, and a beautiful late-night Christmas Eve service at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, followed by fellowship and food at my parents home.
325. the family tradition of the Christmas Concert at the Kennedy Center…
332. a son who exclaims, while watching the flame spread in the pitch darkness, “I get it Mom! It is like the gospel being spread from person to person and lighting the world that is in darkness!”
Lord, please help him to surrender if you call him to preach and to DO IT with all his might for your glory and honor. Amen
333. our Eternal Father, who is STRONG TO SAVE
334. the vibrations felt in the chest when that pipe organ behind us sounds loud and low
335. (and oh yeah, the only shoes they had for me… were 3 inch spikes…)
336. that this shot came out clear though hand held (of course I kept the camera on the ground so it could not move much… uh… yeah… I was laying on the ground in a full length mink. I thought my mom was going to tar and feather me yell at me… when she turned and looked… but… thankfully… all she said was… “nice shot”)
