I was in San Antonio not long ago, getting ready to leave for the airport and fly home. As my girlfriend lifted me into my wheelchair, she reached for my traveling sandals – I only wear them when I’m flying, because I have to be lifted in and out of my wheelchair several times to be transferred into the seat of the airplane. These particular sandals have straps around the heels, that means they don’t fall off my feet when I’m being lifted. I love my sandals.
As my girlfriend was putting them on my feet, she laughed and said, “Joni, these sandals are like the ones the Israelites wore in the desert; you’ve been wearing them for how long?” she asked. “Oh, I think for more than ten or fifteen years,” I replied, “I haven’t found another pair that stay on as well as these do.” That’s when she laughed and said, “Well then Joni you don’t know how to shop!”
She’s right. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Payless Shoes, and probably because of my own traveling schedule. My sandals have taken me to Eastern Europe when the iron went up; they’ve taken me to the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996 and then to Sydney, Australia, in 2000 where I served as a Chaplain to the disabled athletes. I was wearing these sandals when my husband lifted me in my wheelchair up to the top of the Great Wall of China (we were in Beijing distributing wheelchairs and Bibles).These sandals took me to India, Ethiopia, and Thailand, where we taught churches how to reach out to disabled children and their families, beggars on the street who were blind and handicapped. Those shoes were on my feet when I flew to Washington, D.C. to talk to politicians about the right kind of stem cell research using adult tissues and not cells from human embryos. I wore these same sandals going to Billy Graham Crusades, or flying to speak to students in colleges. And that’s not even scratching the surface.
But you know what? My girlfriend is right – the soles on these old sandals have hardly any wear or tear for all that traveling. I guess I really am a little like God’s people whose shoes did not wear out for all their traveling in the desert. And I will tell you when I arrived home that night from San Antonio and my husband took off those sandals that evening, I looked down at them with some fondness – I guess at least the tops of those sandals are looking a little worse for wear. And I suppose I will have to go shopping to Payless Shoes soon. But, oh, how beautiful those old sandals have made my feet for all the places they’ve taken me to share the Gospel of Jesus. Oh, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News. Thank you, God, for such a faithful pair of traveling sandals!
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends