The Holey Shoe

by Kim Harms

“Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.”

Deuteronomy 8:4

“Mom, there’s a hole in my shoe!” Michael hollered as he ran into the house, his face splattered with mud from the creek.

“That’s the third pair this summer,” she responded, thinking about the two pairs of rubber sandals she had thrown away the month before.

“They didn’t last long, did they?” said Michael.

“You do wear them a lot,” she said, looking at the hole where Michael’s big toe was sticking out. “You run around and climb trees and wade through the creek in them.  Shoes aren’t made to last forever. Did you know the Israelites had sandals that lasted longer than I’ve been alive? In Exodus, it tells how they lived in the desert for forty years, and God provided food from heaven and kept their clothes and shoes from wearing out. Sometimes God does things like that to remind people how big and powerful He is and that He will always take care of them.”

“I know how God is taking care of my shoes,” said Michael.

“How?” asked his mom.

“He gave me a mom who goes to the store to buy new shoes when my old ones get holes in them,” he said. “Every time I wear my next pair I’m going to think about the Israelites and the shoes that didn’t wear out.”

Kim Harms is a freelance writer and stay-at-home mom from Huxley, Iowa. She and her husband, Corey, have three boys who are known to wear holes in their shoes from time to time. In addition to Devokids, her work has also been published in Keys for Kids and Thriving Family magazine. You can follow her writing at www.26lettersamillionstories.wordpress.com

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