THE INSEPARABLE PAIR
A lone fluorescent bulb cast light on his bloody shoe in her trembling hand. Size 13, she couldn’t remember it ever feeling so heavy.
When Joel was little, he would dig his heels in the mud, racing a toy quad in a circle around the yard. She’d give him a push when he got stuck. “Thanks, Ma!” he called over his shoulder before coming around again.
But now, her precious son lay still behind a windowless door in an endless hallway that didn’t lead back to her. She was forced to leave without him, only holding one shoe.
“That boy and shoes!” Barb half-smiled in shock, tucking in the muddy laces. How many times had they been late for school, trying to locate the other? It was always a frantic search-a game of lost and found that frustrated her to no end.
Until now.
Unable to find the one missing, she and her dad had to shop for a new pair for his burial. A well-meaning clerk rang them up and pushed the shoebox toward them. “He can always bring these back if they don’t fit!”
Dad’s response-“He won’t be returning these”-left no explanation.
Some mornings Barb could barely put her feet on the ground while the single shoe remained in the closet, longing for its mate. But those were the days God let her glimpse Heaven.
Wide-eyed, she learned that the monument maker’s son, a tow truck driver, was at the accident scene that night. He had picked up a shoe, size 13, and kept it for some time. Though it never returned to her, Barb felt peace knowing it was not alone.
12 hard years have passed since she felt the weight of a single shoe, and though she’s stronger now, she doesn’t bear it alone. When grief tries to crush, faith tugs her upward-a little closer to Jesus and Joel, Joel and Jesus - the two now an inseparable pair in her heart.
Barb shared, "If we trust in the Lord, we can’t also depend on our own abilities to understand everything God is doing. Why did He take my beautiful son home so early? I don’t understand, but I have to trust Him that He has His reasons. My son is the one that is Home, and one day, I will see him again.”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
Proverbs 3:5