Miracles

Do you ever wonder why God chooses certain people to witness certain miracles? I witnessed a miracle last night. It wasn't the first of its kind; in fact, it was the second time God has allowed me to witness this exact miracle. Once, of course I chalk it up to a "wow, God!" but twice, it's a "wow, God! OK, what are You trying to teach me?"

Here is the miracle, ahem, excuse me...plural...here are the miracleS in chronological order (I will do my best job to explain it without putting you to sleep):

In the last wedding, my Siesta (the bride) was having trouble finding the perfect shoe to go with our bridesmaid dress. One day, she ran into THE PERFECT pair at White House Black Market (WHBM) ON CLEARANCE. However, they only had 1 size--her size--but she went ahead and bought it. She called me immediately and we found a picture of the shoe online and figured out that apparently the remaining inventory of this exact shoe is being shipped to the store's outlets. She told me something to the effect of, "there is no way it will be available in all of our sizes, especially since it's on clearance." So, I did what any normal person, who loves a good challenge, would do: started picking up the phone and calling all the outlet stores across the country and asking about the shoe. Little did I know, God had a miracle in store. I called two or three stores in OH, I think one in Alabama, one in IL--I can't remember all the different cities, but none of them had ALL of our sizes...just one at each location, so I put three different pairs of shoes "on hold," in three different locations. The time now was about 5:50PM on a Sunday, so 10 min. before stores close. I decided to make one last call to the WHBM Outlet in Hershey, PA. Lo and behold, they had one in each of our sizes! I put the shoes on hold and called the bride back. We giggled, stood in awe, and decided to pull the trigger and buy the shoe. So I called back at 5:55PM, and bought the shoes. WHBM Outlet even agreed to ship them to us for $4. Wow. Perfect shoe, on clearance, in each of our sizes, sitting there in Hershey, PA, waiting for us, with 5 min. left to spare before the store closed that day.

Look how they turned out at the wedding:














We still call these, "God's shoes." It's as if He knew we wanted them and was waiting to lavish His favor on us by providing them to us. Miracle #1. Soon after this happened, one of my daily devotionals led me to James 5:11 MSG "...you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares right down to the last detail." God cares about the details.

Onto miracle #2.

A good friend of mine is getting married on December 17 this year. We found a gorgeous champagne-colored bridesmaid dress to wear, and the only thing left was finding the perfect shoe to go with it, of course. The bride is a big shoe-person. She's about 5"1' and loves heels. Sassy ones. She found a great pair online, but they were too expensive. She was getting a little discouraged because there are so many details to coordinate before the big day, and so much grad school homework, and piled on top of that regular work--her day job--was getting easily overwhelming. I can relate. I could hardly handle grad school plus my job; having to coordinate a wedding on top of that would probably push me over the edge. I told her about miracle #1 and how God worked everything out beautifully. Literally perfectly...and encouraged her not to worry. And GOD DID IT AGAIN! This time, in Louisville, KY. I was home to spend some quality time with my sister, and of course shopping was one of the many activities of our day.

We went to DSW and set out to find me the perfect pair of tan boots for this Fall. I suggested we also check out the clearance section in case there are any wedding shoes there. I found a pair of gorgeous heels that matched perfectly with our dress. I decided to try them, albeit half-heartedly....with my socks on, obviously not a good idea; oh, and I decided the heel looked too tall, so they wouldn't be comfortable. I walked away, kept looking, and kept running into the same shoe again. So, I said "fine." I tried it on--without socks this time--and was amazed. I could walk in them! The heels were cake, thanks to all my recent practice (refer to my last blog post). My toes were not squished! They fit! Not only did it fit, they were actually sort of comfortable. Oh, and they were 30% off the sale price!! I texted a picture of the shoe to the bride immediately and then called her immediately after texting--I was a little excited. Poor thing hadn't even had a chance to look at the picture yet. So, she said she would call me back. I decided to get busy, because I figured God might be up to something, but again, I under estimated Him. By getting busy, I was texting the other bridesmaid to find out her shoe size and she wrote me back right away--size 9. Then the call from the bride--she loved the shoe!! Then up comes my sister with a pair of size 9...two pairs down, two to go. I ask the bride what size her sisters wear (they are the other two bridesmaids.) She says, "7 or 7.5...7.5 is better..." My sister and I are scurrying down the aisles...and there are two--repeat two--pairs of 'our shoe' in 7.5 sitting side-by-side next to each other...waiting for us to pick them up. I screamed at this point. Or at least, said "oh my gosh!" extremely loudly. We got all 4 pairs! We're done! But then the bride said, "can you see if they have one in my size--a 5.5 or 6?" Me: "they don't go below size 6..." But in my head I'm thinking: Oh no, here I thought we did awesome with finding all the bridesmaids sizes. I hope we don't get disappointed because they don't have one in size 6. We kept looking, didn't find it. I kept saying outloud, "They've gotta have it. It's gotta be here." Guess what happened? We found a size 6! Yes we did. Again, sitting there...waiting for us to pick it up. I screamed again. The bride got excited. I had to sit down...seriously, I had to sit down on one of the benches because this miracle overwhelmed me. God had done it again.

Once I regained composure, my sister and I went to check out (I did get my Fall boots by the way!!). The cashier asks, "are these for a wedding?" I said an emphatic, "YES!" To which, she responds, "I cannot believe we had one in every size! I can't believe we had a size 6. It's meant to be!" There you have it. God had done it again.















I kept thinking about why God would choose me to witness the same miracle twice. I mean, after all to the outsider looking in, they are just shoes. But they happened to be of vast importance. And they happened to get taken care of by God.

I thought about it the entire drive home back to Indy, and then it hit me. James 5:11....God cares about the details. No matter how minute, He cares about the details. Then I started thinking about the details that I find myself worrying about frequently and came to the conclusion that He can take care of them far better than I ever could. After all, nothing is too hard for Him (Jeremiah 32:17). He can make something out of nothing. (Hebrews 11:3)

Will close with this song that, that seems to be just perfect.



Let faith arise.