Socks that Walk in His Footsteps

This.  This is our 2020 sock bin.  There are three total. Each morning, five growing pairs of feet walk down the stairs and rummage through to find socks. Socks that keep feet warm. Socks that offer comfort. Socks that will slide into shoes to protect feet during outdoor play.  Matching characters? A plus.  Identical socks? A rock star moment. But most days, it’s simply two socks. One to cover each foot. And that’s good enough.  The other day, while folding laundry and putting it away, I found myself stuffing more socks into each bin. Truthfully, this all started six months ago when I was far too tired to carry one more burden. The world was so incredibly heavy and uncertain.  Matching socks had to go.  “Overflowing a bit today,” I thought to myself, a little frustrated at the extra stuffing. A lot thankful for the blessings each different one represented.  But I didn’t think much else of it other than this: 2020 has been a year.  A year none of us expected.  But a year God knew was coming all along. A year to get lost in the everyday blessings and moments more than ever before. A year to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. A year to make do with what we have and to be thankful for any extras. A year to celebrate the tiniest of wins. In biggest of ways.  And for our family, it’s become as basic as it can get.  Get two socks on your feet. Thank God for them. And use them to follow His lead throughout the day. Doing everything you can to stay in stride with Him. Because, God? He isn’t looking down upon the world right now and checking for matching socks. He’s simply looking down upon the world right now in 2020 and checking for matching hearts. From ours to His. From our children to ours to His.  Because, I know...one day, all socks will be back in drawers, and most pairs will be matching. The ones with tiny holes will be tossed, and new ones will replace them. Little feet will be back in school full-time. And, this borrowed time together will all be an afterthought. But for this year; for right now, we are learning the beauty in counting our simplest blessings and thanking our Father Above moment-by-moment, for each and every one of them.  And for a year that taught us there is only One true certainty in our lives, it can’t get much more basically beautiful than that. That putting on our socks, one foot at a time, and making sure those feet follow in treating one another the way Jesus treated everyone He met, is just about as important a lesson as we can learn together.