It’s a God Thing!

Let me show you just how much God loves me.  First I have to take you back a few years when Dave and I were at the REI garage sale shopping for raincoats.  Sorting through all the racks of styles and sizes we came up with a dark grey coat for him but the only coat in my size was an incredibly ugly green.  I’m not kidding, the color on the tag said “Bog/Moss.”  At 50% off I figured I could live with it, but I was definitely not a happy camper.  We bought the coats and when we got home Dave had the brilliant idea of checking the online outlet.  Miracle of miracles, for the same price they had the same coat in my size, but it was brown with rose accents on the sleeve.  We bought it, returned the ugly green thing to the store and I breathed a great sigh of relief.

Fast forward to 2016 which finds Dave and I preparing for a long walk in northern Spain, the Camino de Santiago.  This, of course, involves properly equipping ourselves for the journey which means REI is now our new favorite store.  First off we needed sturdy, lightweight boots.  One more a trip to the REI garage sale and Dave got great boots in his size at half price but this time there is nothing for me.  As we waited in the incredibly long check-out line I found a good pair of boots on the clearance rack in my size.  And they were brown with rose-colored laces.  It’s a sign, I just know it.

Now to find our backpacks.  Dave did weeks of research to find the perfect balance of size, style, and weight.  Off to REI once more and we discover those backpacks come in male and female versions.  And the female version sitting right there on the shelf is a lovely shade of rose.  Wow, it matches my boots and my raincoat.  God loves me!

Since we will be carrying everything in our backpacks we needed to buy small lightweight travel towels.  And so we can tell ours apart we bought two different colors.  Dave got blue and mine is…you guessed it rose pink.

Lastly I knew I needed some sort of close-toed sandal to wear as an alternative to the boots.  Scouring the shelves on all the outdoor stores in our local area we came up empty.  Then one afternoon we happened to be in Roseville and stopped into an outdoor store we rarely frequent.  Without much hope I asked at the counter about the sandals.  As the sales clerk quickly walked to the back of the store, she called over her shoulder, “What size?”  Now you have to understand here that while I am about 5 foot 4 inches tall, I wear a whopping size 10 shoe.  I am definitely under-tall for my feet!  The store was practically empty so when I yelled back, “Size 10,” it felt like it echoed endlessly off the shelves.  Talk about embarrassing!  By this time the clerk had reached the shoe section and she called back, “Wow, we have one pair here on the sales rack and they’re your size.”  I ran back to find her holding up a box of closed-toed Keens and guess what color they were?  A beautiful shade of rose.  I am not kidding.  These big boats match my backpack and my boots, and my raincoat perfectly.  Unbelievable.

And that’s how God showed me just how much He loves me.