10/16/2022

When I was a child I went barefoot almost all summer, inside and outside.  I was not quite as rough and tumble as my cousins who I remember seeing outside in the snow of a wintery Utah totally barefoot and with no coat or hat.  They were  rugged farm kids unlike citified small –town kids like my brother and I.  The wrath of our mother may have been a factor in keeping our shoes on our feet.  I still like to be bare foot at home in the house, but I am now too much of a tenderfoot outside these days.  One of the first things I do on arriving home is to shed my shoes.  This is about what feels good rather than necessity.  Some of the great Kenyan runners have trained to run barefoot because of the cost of proper running shoes.  Not having shoes is one of the marks of poverty even now in our world.  The African American spiritual says, “I got shoes, you got shoes, all of God’s children got shoes.  When I get to heaven, going to put on my shoes, going to walk all over God’s heaven!”  Having shoes stands in for all the blessings of God now and in the world to come.  Rejoice, all God’s children got shoes!