Size Eight

 

In 1968, I got a job at Baker shoes in Chattanooga.  This was not my ideal job, but it paid well, so I liked it (or I liked the money).  One day, I waited on two ladies who were, how shall I say it … a little large.  And their feet were a little large too.  They looked at several shoe styles and the one lady settled on a red and white pump.  She confidently said, “I’ll take this in a size eight.”  I wanted to say, “Lady your foot is spread out and you wear at least a size nine extra wide,” but I didn’t.  I wanted the sale.  So, I smiled and went into the stockroom to find her shoe in size eight.  But I had a trick up my sleeve: on the counter in the stockroom, away from the customers, we had a round anvil.  I pulled out the shoes from the size eight box and twisted them around the anvil several times stretching them.  I put them back into the box and walked through the curtain back to the ladies.  With a flourish, I slid the size eight shoes onto the size nine feet.  They fit perfectly.  The lady stood up, turned from side to side admiring her shoes in the mirror, and said to her friend, “See, I told you that I wore a size eight!”  I smiled, her friend smiled, and the lady bought her “size eight” shoes.  Another sale.  Cha-ching!  Proverbs 20:14, “It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.”  She was proud of her shoes, and I was proud of my sale.  But the best bargain that I ever made was the day that I traded my dirty rotten sins for eternal life in heaven with streets of gold and gates of pearl!  What a wonderful exchange!  Jesus gave me a home in heaven, and I was proud of my decision.  But it was all in His wonderful plan, determined from the foundations of the worlds!