After a weekend designated to giving thanks I am grateful to present to you a great Christian Author; Lynn Mosher. She has come to The Rising Muse to share with us a short story. This is what it’s really all about.
Warning: Get your tissues ready!
Enjoy!
The Shoes
The dark, gray skies overhead threatened an early snow. Rushing shoppers, all bundled up to ward off the cold, crowded the sidewalks, lost in their to-do list for Thanksgiving.
Oblivious to their surroundings, no one noticed a small, shivering boy standing in front of the shoe store, his nose pressed against the window, barely dressed and only flip-flops on his dirty feet.
However, one man did see him and stopped, dead still in his tracks, causing others to bump into him. He didn’t notice the bumps and grumblings, but he did notice the small boy because he had a son about the same age.
Thinking how he would feel if this were his son standing there, barely clothed, the man quietly slid next to the boy, the man stood there for a moment, and then said, “They have some nice shoes here, don’t they?”
“Yeah,” came the soft reply.
“Which ones do you like?”
“That pair over there…the cool running ones.”
“Oh, I’ll bet you could run fast in those.”
“Yes sir. I sure could. Like the wind!”
“You know, I have a little boy just about your age.”
“Oh, yeah? I’ll bet he has shoes like that.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, he does. But I have an idea.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“How ‘bout I take you into the store and buy you that pair of shoes?”
The boy stood there motionless. After a few moments, with tears in his eyes, he looked up at the man. “You want to buy me shoes?”
“I sure do. Your feet must be freezing and I’d love to buy them for you.”
The boy couldn’t speak another word.
The man took the boy by the hand and walked into the store. Finding the manager, the man described the pair of shoes and asked the manager to please get a pair in the boy’s size, along with some socks. Then, he said he and the boy would be in the restroom and would he please bring the shoes and socks in there.
The manager gathered the shoes and socks and, upon entering the men’s restroom, found the man on his knees washing the young boy’s feet.
“Can’t stick dirty feet into clean, new socks and shoes, now can we?”
The young boy just stared at the man as he lovingly washed away all the accumulated street-dirt and gently dried his feet.
Feeling he was intruding on a very special moment, the manager quietly placed the shoes and socks on the floor without saying a word and backed out of the restroom.
After placing the socks and shoes on the boy’s feet, the man stood up, and with hands on his hips, said, “Okay. Let’s see how they look. Walk around.”
The little boy couldn’t move. He stared down at his feet that felt glued to the floor. He looked up, tears now streaming down his little face, and said, “Mister, are you Jesus?”
The boy’s words took the man’s breath away. So overcome with emotion, the man could barely speak. Finally, he muttered, “No, son, I’m not. But I know Him very well. And this is a gift from Him.”
“This is the greatest Thanksgiving ever. Would you tell Jesus thank you for me?”
“Well, let’s go for a walk and I’ll tell you how you can do that yourself.”
Thanksgiving blessings, Lynn
Lynn delights us with her writing on her blog Heading Home. She’s the 
writer of upcoming book “Ready or Not Here I come”
To connect with Lynn:
http://lynnmosher.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/lynnmosher
http://www.facebook.com/LynnMosher
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnhmosher
gplus.to/LynnMosher
And the winners of our two books Giveaway are: Donna B. Snow and Dana Ellington. I will be communicating with you guys today for your price. Congratulations!
Remember it’s Cyber Monday and you can give eBooks as gifts through Amazon.com So grab your copy of Growth Lessons, which is still for 99 cents only through the Christmas season, that way you can get a copy for yourself and for those who you know will enjoy it.
Be Blessed!
author or the edition of the magazine that I read. The article was talking about how as believers we tend to have unrealistic expectations of what our emotions should be in determined situations. I think the saddest part about it, is that we permeate this culture of unrealistic expectations when we attempt to provide support to someone in distress.
overwhelmed. I kept praying God’s peace. I surrounded myself with my accountability support people. I finally came to the conclusion that this was the test becoming a testimony. The testimony is that every single thing that looked impossible on Monday was resolved without my intervention and in ways that only God could have shown himself. The fact that I cried and was frustrated doesn’t mean that I didn’t know that God had it in his hand and was going to deal with it. I didn’t’ doubt it for a minute. I just had a bulk of emotions; I recognized them as such and treated them as such.
created mankind to rule and work the earth. In other words, it’s not ours, we are here to take care of it. We were also created to use our gifts and talents for the Glory of God and to disciple the nations of the world.
Naty Matos 