Your Sandals

Your Sandals.  We are sojourners in the wilderness of used tires. Our one car is about at the end of its wandering life. But since that elderly vehicle doesn’t warrant new tires, and because it wouldn’t pass inspection due to two threadbare tires on the front, I drove it down to the shop where the stalagmites stamped with Firestone, Bridgestone, and BF Goodrich grow. Time stands still in the used tire lot while the attendant searches out back for my magic numbers: 265/70 R18. “Ah, boss, 255s will work. You won’t even be able to tell the difference.” “Ok, but will you come down a little on the price for the mismatch?” Three hours later, I passed my inspection and paid my dues for the privilege of driving on the highway.

It goes without saying that I had time to think while I swatted at mosquitoes that had been born and bred in the rubberized stacks of used tires. I thought about Moses and the Israelites wandering in the desert. Moses, who pontificated to the young nation as his shift was ending, said, “I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet” (Deut. 29:5). It was not a random fact that Moses casually dropped but an object lesson that everyone had collectively experienced—perhaps an ancient equivalent of driving for forty years and never needing new tires. Look at your feet in this barren wasteland—your shoes have not worn off your feet, folks. Think on that and thank the Lord! God who has been faithful in the smallest details will be faithful in the largest.

Unlike Israel, our tires have worn off our rims. But like Israel, God has always provided the means to get us from Point A to Point B. Sometimes, it has been with a set of four, brand new Michelins. Sometimes, it has been with patched up, mismatched, generic tires that someone had already junked once. But always has the Lord provided. From that unexpectedly vivid object lesson, we can project by faith that God will continue to provide for our every need in Christ Jesus, even when the taxes are due, and the inspection fails.