Ballet Shoes & Hope

I was reading in Romans 5 this morning:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

There’s that sense of the now and the not yet – I have an unshakable, certain hope of future glory and life forever with my Savior, and that brings me much joy. But here’s this verse, reminding me to also rejoice in my present trials here on this earth. “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, BECAUSE God’s LOVE has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Hope. It’s the word the Lord gave me to meditate on this year, and here it is again! And how kind of God to follow up my time with Him this morning with a tiny, little reminder of His care...

I was rounding up the kids this morning to head out to ballet lessons. It’s picture day, which meant rising a little earlier so I could get Claire made up and ready. As I was telling everyone to go get into the van, Claire came to me with this funny look on her face. “Mom,” she said timidly, “I can’t find my ballet shoes...”

I closed my eyes. “Didn’t this same thing happen last year?” I asked. I could feel the anger and frustration starting to bubble inside me.

“Yep,” said Elise, “only it happened on rehearsal day and she ended up having to wear her old ballet shoes for the rehearsal and the performance. We didn’t find her new shoes until halfway through the summer.”

I really didn’t need that reminder right at that moment! Swallowing my frustration, I told the kids we had 15 minutes to search for those shoes before we absolutely had to walk out the door. “Where did you see them last?” I asked Claire. Normally she just keeps them in the van, so she has them for class without even having to think about it.

“I took them into the sun room before we ate dinner last night, but they aren’t there.”

“Did you dance in them before dinner?” I asked.

“No, I just set them on the table. But I don’t remember what happened to them after dinner.”

We checked all the usual hiding places for shoes. Under the couches, in the closets, in the shoe baskets by both doors. They were nowhere to be found.

I walked into the dining room and started crying out to God. “Lord, I just need a little miracle here. I need You to show me where those shoes are. Please, God, it’s just a little thing, but I really need to know You hear me, and You care! Please, please, God, show me where those shoes are! Show me where to look!”

Glancing out the window, my eyes fell on the small bistro table set that Augie had moved from the sun room to the front porch just the night before. I’d already called Augie to see if he’d stashed the shoes somewhere when we were cleaning up after dinner, but he hadn’t seen them. Still, I felt compelled to go out the front door and look at that bistro set. Walking across the porch, I went up to the chairs and flipped up the cushions. And there they were! Ballet shoes!

Running inside, I called out to the kids, “I prayed, and I found them! God answered my prayer!”

On the way to ballet we talked about God’s amazing love, expressed in the biggest, most complicated designs down to the smallest, most intimate of details. We talked about praying to God and listening for His answers. We talked about trials and about hope. We talked about lilies and sparrows and ballet shoes.