Missionary shoes, we can all have them! Those are shoes made with the best materials: willingness, eagerness, speediness, promptness, hastiness, keenness… like Paul writes to the Ephesians, we need to have our “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15).
I came to reflect on the subject when I was looking through one of my memory photo albums from Bolivia. In the middle eighties our family lived in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Before I go on, you need to know that Swedes have a custom of taking off their shoes when visiting a home. I think it’s very considerate, especially when the weather is bad. I sure appreciated it the years I lived in Bolivia, mostly when it was raining. The streets by our house were not paved and it could get very muddy.
This is the picture that got me thinking about shoes. The missionaries working in Cochabamba at the Swedish school and in different projects used to meet weekly for prayer and fellowship. True to Swedish custom, everyone would leave their shoes at the door. That was a great opportunity for the photographer in me! And at this particular time they met at our house.
If you visit me today you’ll see the same faithful red plastic rug. Swedish quality made to last forever! These were the shoes of the school principal and the housemother; the aviator; the jungle missionary; Paul visiting from Argentina; the Salvation Army lady; Mary, the mother of a whole soccer team (when the girl finally arrived she and Klas-Gunnar closed down the production!); young Markus, now a missionary himself; his parents… What amazing stories each of these shoes could tell!
These shoes belonged to someone that would have loved to tread missionary paths. That was her childhood dream. These were her Swedish clogs that she never could wear because her feet were not stable enough. I’m talking about my daughter Eva-Marie. As many of you know, she struggled with cystic fibrosis for over thirty years, but now she is walking steadily on streets of gold! I wonder what kinds of shoes we’ll have there. Maybe with rubies.
Time and again I keep coming back to something about my daughter. It’s been nine years without her, but I cannot forget her. God asked Isaiah a question, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me” (Isa 49:15,16).
What a wonderful promise! God knows the kind of shoes we walk in. He knows our pain and our hurts. Sometimes it seems like He might have forgotten us, but He is working behind the scenes, and when we think all hope is gone, He comes in mercy and grace.
Missionary shoes are fitted on beautiful feet. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isa 52:7). Anybody can have them. You just need to have a willing heart to be God’s messenger.
These are the shoes of my precious grandchildren. My prayer to God is that their feet always be fitted with “missionary shoes” made of willingness, eagerness, speediness, promptness, hastiness, keenness and all those other good things that make us loving messengers of the God of love and compassion.
Did you put on your missionary shoes today?
Kerstin Lundquist's Blog 