Cheri Strange, Christian Speaker and Author

       I’m digging in the garage today for old shoes. My frenzied brain tells me I don’t have that kind of time --- but I need to find it, because a few days ago I learned of a way to bring more meaning into my Christmas decorating, and digging is imperative!

       A pastor’s wife and mother of six girls shared how she places one pair of shoes for each girl on the Christmas tree. As she places them, she prays for that child and the person she will marry some day. I loved this idea immediately – not only because I have a quiver of girls of my own, by because the days are frantic! Sometimes what is truly significant in life is passed over and forgotten in order to fix dinner in the middle of racing to piano and stopping by the store to grab the cookies needed for school tomorrow…Ugh…And I forget the important stuff –like praying for the men with whom my daughters will spend the majority of their lives.

       Selecting a pair of shoes from each year, for each child – praying over them and their future spouses each year as the shoes are hung – ensures that I will pause for the important. What was once an ordinary tree with ornaments perfectly spaced will be covered with ugly, smelly shoes. It won’t be a Martha Stewart magazine spread – but it will bring a true beauty and significance to this season, all its own. And while I am celebrating the gift God gave me in His son, I will symbolically and prayerfully give my girls back to Him.  

       What happens to all those shoes when my daughters finally meet and marry their spouses? We will give one shoe from each pair to him as a physical demonstration of our prayers for him and for her all of our daughter’s life.

       Hanging smelly, worn-out shoes all over my tree may not be as aesthetically pleasing as the glass bulbs currently adorning it --- but it will be beautiful to us, a fragrant offering to God, and significant for all eternity.

       Does your child have any worn-out smell shoes for your tree this year?