Little things sometimes seem neither here nor there. We tend to think that small details or coincidences have nothing to do with a larger plan or purpose. But a friend of mine from Newark, Delaware, wrote of one such "small insignificance."
My friend wrote, Hurrying through a supermarket I accidently knocked over a display of shoelaces. Impulsively, in my embarrassment, I flung a packet of men's shoelaces into the shopping cart and after paying for them, tossed the shoelaces into my purse.
"Then I was off to the rehabilitation hospital where I had been visiting daily with Donald, a man whose arms and legs were paralyzed after he had fallen from a ladder.
"That day I found Donald unusually despondent. 'Brenda,' he said to me after we had finished the physical therapy session, 'I've tried to be cheerful about all this, but sometimes I feel as though God simply doesn't care anymore about what happens to me.'
"'Oh, Donald, you know He cares, ' I began. But I had no real answers for him and so we sat in silence.
"'Oh, by the way,' Donald said to me later as I started to leave, 'no big deal, but the nurse broke one of my shoestrings this morning. Next time you're out, could you get me a new pair?'
"Shoestrings! I opened my purse and took out the brown pair from the supermarket. We stared at them in amazement and I then bent down and laced the strings into Donald's shoes. Shoestrings for a pair of shoes on feet that could not move to wear them out. Shoestrings for a set of hands that could not even tie the bow.
"'Donald, if God cares enough to supply you with shoestrings before you even ask, I'm certain He cares enough about you in more important ways!'
"A smile broke onto his face. 'Yes, you're right,' Donald said. 'I'm sure too.'"
Shoestrings. One of those little things that seems neither here nor there...a small coincidence that couldn't possibly have any part in a plan or purpose. These things really don't mean that much... or do they?
"'Whenever I'm, discouraged,' my friend closed off her letter, 'I think of those shoestrings and I know that God cares for me, too -- meticulously, intimately, right down to the laces in my shoes.'"
And the little details in your life do matter to God – from the tip of your head, all the way down to your shoelaces.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends