Velcro

How hard can it be to find a pair of shoes?
I am always amazed at my husband’s side of our walk-in closet.
He has a few pairs of shoes for work and dress.
He has sneakers and duck boots for winter weather.

His side of the closet is streamlined.
His side of the closet is a man’s closet.
He teases me that I have two-thirds of our closet and he only has one-third.
That is true; I explain that women need more clothes.

He does not agree with my logic but after thirty-five years of marriage, he accepts it.
Women have shirts, jackets, sweaters, skirts, dresses, and jeans.
Women have active wear to walk in or to exercise in.
And then there are her shoes.

Most women have quite a selection of shoes.
She has shoes of various colors to go with different outfits.
A woman has stylish heels for evening and comfortable dress shoes for every day.
That comfortable category can be expanded to sneakers, flats, sandals, and low heels.

A man cannot understand a woman’s vast wardrobe.
A woman dresses according to the place she is going or the thing she is doing.
A woman may wear a few outfits in one day.
This is not perplexing to most women.

However, it is the comfortable shoe category that has me frustrated.
I am trying to find comfortable shoes to wear with sundresses and maxi skirts in the summer.
You think that would be easy.
It is proving to be a very difficult task.

I want shoes that look nice but that are functional.
I want shoes that I can wear when I visit my son in DC and we walk everywhere in the city.
I want shoes that look good and feel good.
Finding them is much harder than I expected.

I enjoy online shopping but do not like to order shoes that way.
I cannot try the shoes on until they arrive.
I have already returned three pairs.
They were shoes that seemed like they would fit my criteria but failed on all fronts.

Two pairs of shoes were ordered at the same time.
They shipped separately from different locations.
One pair arrived through the post office.
The other pair arrived through UPS.

I was excited to try them on.
I opened the box and liked what I saw.
I removed the cardboard and other packaging.
I put them on my feet, or at least I attempted to put them on my feet.

They were walking sandals that had a Velcro strap across the instep.
I pulled the Velcro as it made that recognizable sound.
I pulled the strap to make it wider to easily slip my foot inside.
The Velcro strap did not move.

I looked at the shoe again and saw the problem.
The Velcro strap went over another strap that was stationary.
That stationary strap does not move.
That strap is not adjustable.

Sandals that I assumed to be so easy to put on my feet were quite difficult to put on.
This is ridiculous, I said out loud though no one was home.
The shoes were cute to look at but horrible to wear.
The immovable strap was too tight and made it impossible to get on my feet with ease.

I went back on the website and processed a return.
I printed out the label for outside the box.
I printed out the packing slip that was to go inside the box.
I taped everything up as if I had never opened the box and will take it to the UPS store.

How hard can it be to find a pair of shoes?
By all appearances, the shoes I ordered should have been just what I was looking for.
Looks can be deceiving.
The reality did not match the picture that was presented.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:25-28)

As I taped up the boxes, I wondered how many times I am like those shoes.
How often does my outside match my inside?
How often does my heart match my outward behavior?
How often does the outside of me look fine but the inside of me is immovable and stubborn?

I don’t want to be a piece of decorative Velcro.
I don’t want to look fine on the outside but be displeasing to the Lord on the inside.
I desire to be teachable and flexible.
I do not want anything about me to be decorative only.

We can fool people with how we look on the outside.
We can clean up well and put forth our best selves for their benefit.
We can have lots of decorative things about us that impress others.
But God sees our heart.

God sees our immovable Velcro hearts that are stubborn and ugly.
God knows us from the inside out.
In fact, it is the inside of us that He cares about so deeply.
God cares about the things we think we hide.

He is the Potter.
I am the clay.
He can mold me and make me into the kind of woman He desires me to be.
He will peel away my immovable Velcro heart and make it more like His.

Can you hear the sound of the Velcro as God peels it away?
That sound is music to His ears.
It is a symphony of restoration.
It is necessary and beautiful.

Peel away, Lord.
Peel away.