If Cheryl’s Shoe’s Could Talk

There I was just another pair of Converse wanna-be’s sitting on a shelf. I watched many people walk by me. I watched kids play on the floor, I listened in on private conversations, watched teenagers do in appropriate things in the shoe isle, all while I waited to get chosen.

Then one day in came Cheryl. She looked in a hurry, but took her time picking me. She bought me, took me home, then laid me out with all the others. Oh, there were others! I wasn’t sure then what she needed me for, but it wasn’t long before I found out.

Our first outing she paired me with the cutest outfit. She looked so nice I felt like a pair of real converses. Now, one thing I knew was people. In the store I observed many people, but none like Cheryl. She was different. From the start we were serving people. We must have walked miles together, serving Jesus. We went to bible studies, churches, and prayer meetings. This girl was the real deal!

I loved my life with Cheryl I got to observe a different kind of people than I did in the store. Through the years her and I traveled we became best buds. I like to think I was her favorite; I know she was mine! Then one day as I sat waiting in a cabin for her to wear me, we were on a trip together, another girl came towards me and picked me up.

She looked at me admiringly and they carried me to Cheryl. I thought, Oh, she needs me. But then the girl never gave me to Cheryl she put me on her own feet; while Cheryl watched! I tell you I was shocked! I protested as she stuck her feet in me and the truth is that her feet didn’t even fit in me they were a size too small. After she quickly put me on her feet we sat through a church like service.

I thought long and hard about what just happened and all I could think was that if Cheryl had decided that this girl was to wear her shoes then it must be for a good reason. After years with her I knew she was a giver, but she had never given me away before. I decided I must serve this new girl well.

It was a rainy weekend. My new wearer took great care with me. She was careful not to step in puddles or mud and often would clean me off if I got dirty. It was almost like she knew I was special to Cheryl. The weekend wore on and so did I. This girl walks a lot. She was serving people in a concentrated like session. Cheryl often did this too, but she would spread the work out between me and a few other pairs of shoes.

I began to get tired. And unbeknownst to me at first and the girl who was wearing me; I tore. This is so embarrassing I ripped at the seems. I later found out that a woman had got caught in the rain and had no dry shoes to wear. The girl and my Cheryl had come to her rescue. Cheryl offered the girl without shoes me, but the other girl, the one wearing me, said her shoes would fit the girl better and for her safety insisted that she wear Cheryl shoes instead.

Once the girl saw I had ripped she took me off and laid me down by her bed. I heard her as she told her friend how horrible she felt to have broken Cheryls shoes. Then about a day later I, the tore shoe, was in Cheryls hands once more. She explained how old I was and how long I had lasted. I knew she would miss me but that in that moment she was proud of me.

I had forgotten how old I was until she had said, but not all was lost. I, the tore shoe, have been saved. I sit in the new girls house on a shelf. She thanked me for her service and said, “I am going to save you to remind me of the day I walked in Cheryls shoes and how I learned that they are big shoes to fill.”