Our church sponsors volunteers who come to serve for a year or more, assisting the pastor any and every way they can, without holding outside jobs. In return the church families provide for their needs. One weekend I went shopping for a volunteer named José.
I picked up some work shirts and socks, but couldn’t find the new dress shoes he needed in size 12.
While I was out, I stopped by Goodwill to look for bargains for myself. Something made me head toward the men’s shoe rack. What was I doing? José of all people deserved a brand-new pair of shoes to wear to church. But somehow the impulse wouldn’t go away. Okay, God, I thought. Guide me.
Dutifully I scanned the shoe rack. Not much to choose from. But on the bottom row sat a pair of black leather shoes. I picked them up and turned them over. Not a scuff or scratch, the bottoms were clean and shiny. They looked brand-new. Size 12, no less. The answer to my prayer!
“The answer to my prayer!” José repeated when he slipped them on.
Marveling at God’s efficiency the next day at work, I told Fred and Laura, the elderly couple I cared for, about it. “Those were Fred’s shoes!” Laura said.
“I bought them a few months ago,” Fred said, “but my feet were swollen when I tried them on. They were really too big for me.”
“We couldn’t return them, so we took them to Goodwill,” Laura said. “We asked God to find them a good home.”
That made three answered prayers! Not bad for one pair of shoes.
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