Brance, Lauren & Haddie

Nearly a month has lapsed since I posted the story about the missing shoe and I have yet to post the ending. I guess I could make excuses for why I haven’t completed it yet (or posted more frequently for that matter), but they would be just that – excuses. So instead I humbly offer my sincerest apology and the ending of the story.

When I left off last time I was running up a busy sidewalk in Cambridge trying to catch a runner who had in her possession my little girl’s shoe. I was completely befuddled as to what she wanted with a single leather child’s sandal. If I had had the time to sit back and rationally analyze the situation, I’m sure it would have all made sense to me. But in midst of a blood pumping, adrenaline rushing sprint – I can’t say that I was all that clear of thought. I did notice one thing, though… my efforts to verbally get her attention went unnoticed. Regardless of how loudly I yelled “excuse me, mam that’s my little girl’s sandal”, the runner continued to run away from me in the opposite direction and boy was she fast. It wasn’t until she came to a screeching halt that it all began to make sense. She wasn’t running away from me as I had felt in the moment, she hadn’t even noticed me. She was running TO a a young couple pushing a young child in a stroller. She had noticed the sandal on the ground and kindly was trying to return it. It all made sense now! When I had first noticed her she was looking around trying to figure out to whom it might belong. At that point we were standing completely across the intersection and she hadn’t even noticed us. Because she stopped running I was FINALLY able to catch up with her and when I did, I realized she wasn’t ignoring my calls… she was wearing earbuds and couldn’t hear my calls. As I caught up with her, she finally took notice of me. I explained to her that we had looked everywhere for my little girls sandal and I thanked her profusely as she handed it to me with a smile.

Brance and I had a good laugh more than once because of the ridiculousness of the whole situation, but it also resulted in us pondering something a little deeper. It might seem a bit odd, but this comedic situation reassured us of the complete providence of God. If the shoe had been picked up earlier, certainly the kind individual would have taken it into one of the many, many shops or cafes that lined the busy street and we would have never found it. If we had arrived later, the runner would have done the same. The time we realized that Haddie had lost her shoe and retraced our steps put us at the intersection at the exact moment for Brance to see it be retrieved by the runner. Certainly it was just a shoe and could have been replaced, but the incredible reminder of the providence of God was irreplaceable. And it will be a funny story to share with Haddie someday down the road.