Everyone who knows me knows I love a beautiful pair of shoes -- I guess I get that from my mother --and Emmie has a few pair that I would love to wear. However, I have respected her closet and kept my hands off of it. Or I guess kept my feet out of it, I should say. She has shown me the same courtesy.
A few years ago Emmie bought a cute pair of brown heels that I loved. I asked if I could try them on and I was given a stern warning not to "stretch out" her shoes. I never even put a toe in the shoes, but every time I saw them on her I admired them. A lot.
I looked all over town for a very similar pair to no avail. Finally, I just gave up or perhaps I was distracted by some other beautiful shoes I found instead. The point is, I forgot about her brown heels. Until the other day.
I was busy working on a project in the living room and she was busy cleaning out her closet. She walked in and set not one, but two pairs of brown heels beside me and asked, "Do you want these?"
One was the very pair I had admired for quite some time. She had grown tired of them, and her desire for more space was greater than her desire for the old shoes. I was thrilled to have them, but not sure they would actually fit. I tried them on and they fit like silk. Her months of wearing them had softened the leather to the point they were more comfortable than almost any in my own closet. I gladly took both pairs.
So did I have a new pair of old shoes, or an old pair of new shoes? It doesn't really matter, I was thrilled because I had the shoes I had wanted for quite a while. My desire had not been lacking, nor had my ability to purchase the shoes. It's just the shoes weren't ready for me yet.
Sometimes that is how it works with things in our lives. We have a desire for something, maybe we even have the gifts or talent for it, but it just doesn't seem to be forthcoming in our lives. Perhaps we look and look for it, as I did for a similar pair of shoes. But all along the shoes were right here in my house being broken in for me by someone else. Sometimes we just have to trust that the Lord's timing is not only right, it is perfect. He is God and we are not. His way is perfect and ours is not. When we let our heart's desire be to follow Him and have Him work out His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus in and through us, then we will see the desires of our heart fulfilled in ways we could have never imagined.
As the old song says,
"The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing,
All is mine since I am His,
How can I keep from singing?"
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
Psalms 37:4
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