The Parable of the Lost Jelly Shoe
Preparing your heart to receive a miracle part 4
After a long day of playing on the beach with our little tribe, it came to that dreaded moment we are all familiar with, when you actually have to shake the sand out of your shoes and go home for the day. No one with young children likes that moment! So, with much whining and gnashing of teeth, we reluctantly began to gather our belongings. During that process, we discovered that we were one shoe short, and not just any shoe! This was Hannah’s favorite pair of blue jelly shoes, which had a dolphin on the bottom of each one. The little left shoe had floated away unnoticed. Like good parents, we broke the news of the loss to Hannah, and braced ourselves for the onslaught of emotion typical of our three-year-old in these types of situations.
However, without flinching, Hannah merely said, “It will come back in Jesus’ name.”
Since that was her only pair of shoes we had packed with us on vacation, we spent the next day searching for a replacement pair of size 6 jelly shoes. After walking the mile-long promenade and scouring what seemed like hundreds of beach souvenir stores, we gave up. We could not find one pair of shoes in Hannah’s size among the hundred stores selling shoes. By the end of the day, we had long given up looking for a particular color—any piece of plastic resembling a shoe in size 6 would work, but alas it was not to be.
The Faith of a Child
With the remaining dolphin shoe still attached to Hannah’s foot (because she refused to remove it), we returned to the beach the following day. As we were leaving, something blue caught our eyes. Sure enough, it was Hannah’s missing shoe! Hannah picked it up, as if it was exactly where she thought it would be. “This one has been on an adventure!” she said, as she fastened the rusty buckle.
This sounds like a cute childhood story, but for us it was a powerful lesson about faith. In her uncomplicated faith, Hannah simply believed that Jesus was big enough to bring back something that was lost. He loved her, so why not?
It is easy to become overwhelmed and discouraged when circumstances don’t look good. It sure didn’t look good for that shoe! Often, it is our tongues that get us in the most trouble when trying to believe God. Rather than using our words to agree with the situation facing us, the Scripture says that we can change the outcome.
Romans 4:17 says that God calls those things that be not as though they are.
Proverbs 18:21 tells us that we have the power of life and death in our tongues!
Hannah spoke out what she believed and did not move from it until she saw it come to pass. It is amazing what a difference three days can make!
Hebrews 6:12 says that it is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God. In today’s world, where we want to microwave our miracles, this is not a popular message! However, we want to encourage you to keep standing on the promises of God, keep speaking the Word of God only, and call those situations—that be not right now—to be so, as the Lord intended them to be.
Praise God! He loves us so much that He cares about what we care about—our health, our finances, our relationships, and even our favorite jelly shoes!