The "Shoes" Story

It was an ordinary day. Getting ready for church. Christmas Eve Pageant service at St. James has been at 5:00 PM for ages. They try to hold the service to about 30-45 minutes because that is about all the time the young children and the over 65 or retired crowd can handle. For the past few years it seems that at this service many people, especially the men, have been "dressing down". A nice pair of slacks, collared shirt and sweater are fine, rather than a suit. Fine with me. I don't think the Baby Jesus can see us or will care what we wear, as long as we come to celebrate his birthday with him. Since I retired 12 years ago the only time I get "dressed up" anymore is for church or funerals. My wardrobe now consists of Kirkland jeans and a Jimmy Buffet shirt or Hawaiian shirt. For church tonight I wore a pair of gray slacks, mustard colored shirt with a gray sweater that has a mustard colored pattern around the middle of it. My shoes are my dad's old wingtips that I wear to special church services so he can still be with us at one of his favorite places. He and I participated as Kings in this pageant for years and I know he would love to still be a part of it, so I wear the same shoes he wore for many years when he was a King. They are still like new on the tops with a brilliant corduroy shine. I head down to the family room to watch a little TV until my wife is ready to go. Sit in my chair and recline. Ten minutes later my wife arrives in the family room, looks at me and says, "You can't wear those shoes." "Why not," I reply. "The one has a big hole in the bottom," she says. "Doesn't matter since it isn't raining or snowing tonight," ismy comeback. "But when you kneel, everyone will see the bottom of the shoe and they will

think you have nothing better to wear." I realized that, but it's dad's shoes and this is his way to continue to attend, and anyway our pews are enclosed with doors on them and when you kneel no one can see you anyway unless they are crawling on the floor behind me. After I give this reasoning to her, she agrees and off we go. Service tonight is a new rendition of the old pageant with all children taking the parts of the Kings as well as the Shepard, angels, innkeeper, etc. Dad would have loved it, even if he would have had to sit in a pew in his wingtips. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - LDub on the left, Dr. Jim in the center and Dad on the right in his corduroy wingtips.