Britton's Boots

My son is a funny little man. He has a way of saying the funniest things. For Christmas, Santa brought him his very own pair of boots. They are John Deere boots that are brown on the bottom part that sticks out from under his jeans and green with yellow stitching on the upper part. They fit him and his personallity perfectly. One day while wearing those boots he informed everyone that his boots were "trained for water, mud and muck." Because of the training that they received he was able to jump in mud puddles and any standing water he encountered. Boys will be boys.



I was doing my daily reading this morning from a book by Phillip Yancey called Grace Notes that I received as a gift from a friend of mine after my surgery. In it Phillip was talking about how Jesus went through his life without sin and yet still had to suffer a horrible death to atone for everyone else's. Jesus felt pain, suffered ridicule and humiliation, and was broken and beaten for absolutely no reason at all. God's perfect plan for the world through Jesus has allowed for every person, no matter what the circumstance to be able to relate to Him and his suffering and know that whatever they may face, they will not be alone. I sit and think about my situation often. Not so much of why me but just that it is here and a part of my reality. Did I do something to bring this on me? Is this retribution for some of my past sins? Could I have done something different to avoid this. Absolutely not. This is part of God's plan. Just like it was His plan to reconsile the world to Him through His son. And all along the way I have been growing closer and closer to God. Through my relationships at church, through conversations with my boss at work, through my daily reading of the Bible, and through my prayer time with God every morning. All of these things have allowed me to see the real Jesus and to find an opportunity to talk, plead, argue, yell at and listen to God. I find myself identifing with some of the struggles and hardships that Jesus had to face. Not that I feel that I am on the same level as He is, just that I know I can lean on Him because He actually has been through the same emotional rollercoaster that I have. I guess to bring all things back in full circle, I am like my son's boots. I have slowly over the years been trained for water, mud and muck. I can jump right in the middle of any puddle that I may encounter and know that it will be all right. And because of that, I can get up each morning now with a certain peace in my heart that all is well. No matter what the outcome.