Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Two Girls and a Pair of Shoes

On my way home from Missouri I decided to stop at one of my favorite shoe stores. Sometimes I’m just looking, but on this particular day I was shopping for a specific style: dressy black shoes with medium-height heel and open toe. It didn’t take long to find the perfect pair, but my size was AWOL. I grabbed a sample shoe and found Jesslyn, the sweet young clerk, and asked if perhaps a size 6 could be in the storage room. She smiled and courteously responded that everything they had was out on the shelf. We visited for a few minutes about how cute these shoes were and then she said something I’d never heard before from a shoe-store clerk: “They are really pretty shoes, in fact, I have a black pair and a white pair of them at my house that I’ve worn only once for a high school special-occasion evening. I’m pretty sure at least one of them is a size 6. Would you be interested in buying them?” I said, “Yes! If it‘s the black pair — I don‘t need the white ones.” Jesslyn told me it was actually time for her break, so she’d ask the manager if she could run home to get the shoes for me. She got the green light and off she drove.

I meandered around the store waiting and thinking about how this was evolving into a very unusual story. Very shortly, Jesslyn zoomed into the parking lot and walked in toting the size 6 black shoes that I’d set my heart on. We had previously agreed on a price, so I laid the money down and both of us had a win-win for the day! I couldn’t leave without a taking a picture of the three of us smiling, standing behind the counter. I told the girls  they could be sure to find this story in their local newspaper — because it’s just too good and off-the-wall not to share!

I pray about everything, whether it‘s big or little. But I don‘t remember praying for a pair of black shoes. However, they were an insignificant secret desire of my heart. Over the years, the following scripture has proven to be true in my life: “Find your delight in the Lord. Then He will give you everything your heart really wants” (Psalm 37:4 NIRV). After experiencing several weeks of stress associated with totaling a vehicle, I think the odd blessing of finding these shoes was simply God’s way of reminding me that He cares about even the little things in my life.

You may think I’m an oddball; you may think I’m wacky. You may believe in coincidence; I do not. I see God’s fingerprints all over this encounter of the bizarre kind. It started with me simply asking, against all odds, “Do you have a size 6 in the backroom?” I already knew the answer, but something prompted me to ask anyway. And now you know the rest of the story.

There are definite perks that come to believers from delighting ourselves in the Lord. And many times God sends these unique blessings through people. These two girls were sweet as sugarcane but God can cause even grumpy people to give us favor. He knows the number of hairs on our head so He certainly cares about our desires, no matter what size they are. In my case, a 6.

The Key: God used Jesslyn and Donna to bring my heart’s desire to reality! I was still smiling as I drove across the Vernon/Bourbon County line.

It’s a duck call to a mallard, a 75% off Instagram sale to a shopaholic, a box of Godiva chocolates to most of my friends.  Irresistible.  Enticing.  A guaranteed, surefire, “once in a lifetime opportunity.”  Never has a friend’s “O-I-A-L-O” investment given me anything but a migraine and a depleted bank account.  The invitation to ride a donkey to the depths of the Grand Canyon on a path only inches wider than the beast’s belly doesn’t mean I saddle up. And how many sets of knives do I need as a result of the “special ends in one hour” ploy?  Once-in-a-lifetime-opportunities have led to bankruptcy, divorce and even death (in which case, granted, the definition is literal).

Now, do I believe there are legitimate “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities?  Absolutely. Every day God allows us to cross paths with people we will never see again who need to hear the gospel. Our family’s trip to the mission field in Africa taught me that doing without “things” gives me time to hang with God. Spending hours every day with my mother in the nursing home showed me how fragile life can be and how those who dined with her one meal can have funerals a few days later.  There were chances to talk to them about Jesus.

Sometimes I did.  But not always. After all, there’s always tomorrow…

Now, that’s foolishness.  The Bible is chock full of decisions that had to be made on the spot, but Matthew 25 is a great analogy of the need for immediacy.  Ten virgins have carried their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Only five took extra oil with them. When the bridegroom failed to show up, the ten fell asleep, waking only when he was a short distance away.   The foolish virgins found their lamps dimming and asked for the wise to share.  Let’s pick it up in verse nine.

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’  But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.  Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’   “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

The point cannot be dismissed.

If we dilly-dally, thinking we’ll make Jesus our Lord “someday,” we are fools.  This day, this moment, might be our only chance to take Jesus up on his offer.  As for guaranteed, surefire “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities, it doesn’t get much more legitimate than that.