The book I wrote is a mere 1/4 inch tall when it lounges on its back. I kept it brief in order to be more accessible to women whose lives leave little margin to pick up a book. In the year it took to write all the words, with my audience in mind I may have deleted as many words as I kept. One chapter I nixed had to do with shoes.
Before exiting the hospital with a baby, I had no idea the plethora of pairs of shoes required per set of growing feet per year. Soft-sole shoes for learning how to walk. Hard-sole shoes for walking outside. Shoes for soccer, baseball, basketball, gym, and dance. Boots for hunting. Boots for winter. Shoes for running. Sandals for summer. Shoes for church and other such occasions that require looking spiffy. I can NOT remember needing so many pairs of shoes when I was growing up! Perhaps feet have gotten needier?
Growing feet belong to growing bodies belong to human beings who are constantly changing…growing! And requiring shoes that fit their feet. A child puts on a pair of shoes and notices his toes are pinched. And finally, you rest your eyes on the teenage human with size 11 shoes who fits in the driver’s seat of the car where his giant feet push actual pedals!
Each time the shoe size increases, so does all the stuff they can do in those shoes. Drive a car. Walk into high school, college, a job. Judging from the growth of their shoes alone, kids experience a steady and astonishing stream of change. Just when their shoes get broken in and comfortable, they are suddenly too small.
“It’s okay,” loving adults around them say with words and sometimes cookies and also hugs (whenever allowed). “No matter what changes you are still you. You are so loved in each and every shoe size. You are a wonder in that growing body God made. You are expensive, you shoe wearer-outer and out-grower! Even so, you will never outgrow God’s love, wrapped more tightly around you than a too-small shoe. Which…I can see you have going on there.”
Lisa Lewton 