Clothes that last 40 years!

Yet the LORD says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness,

your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet."

Deuteronomy 29:5

Last month, I attended a niece’s wedding with our 28-year-old son. Sitting with one foot across his knee as we waited to be ushered out of the ceremony, he pointed out that he had just recently bought a new pair of black dress shoes—replacing the ones we’d bought him for his 8th grade graduation eleven years ago! Not only that, he says he is still wearing the same black trousers that he wore for that occasion. I can hardly believe it!

“Seriously,” I asked, “your shoe size hasn’t changed since 8th grade?

“No,” he laughed.

And while his waist is still as slight as a barely teenager, I can’t believe he hasn’t added at least an inch or two to his height in the last decade. He insists it’s true.

I’m more surprised that those shoes still fit him than that they lasted as long as they did, after all, he probably only wore them once a week, max, for most of those years. Honestly, all I remember him wearing to church during his high school years was a favorite pair of soccer shoes. He is a cabinet maker/furniture craftsman, so dress shoes are not his everyday footwear. Still—eleven years!

“They just sort of fell apart one day,” he explained. “I was walking and felt something squishy. The soles were completely disintegrating.”

I’m delighted with him and for him that those shoes lasted so long. He and his wife are just getting started in life. Avoiding or delaying unnecessary expenses is a big part of their life. They are happy to make do with what they have. I’m thrilled those shoes made do as long as they did.

I think about God’s reminder to the Israelites—in forty years of wondering in the wilderness, neither their clothes nor sandals wore out. Not for lack of wear or tear. Surely, 40 years of desert wandering would take its toll on footwear. But, God didn’t allow it – and in his mercy and faithfulness brought them through the wilderness intact – shoes and all.

Sometimes I speak pretty glibly of God’s faithfulness. His mercies are new every morning—and I tend to take them for granted. I expect to greet the new day with a modicum of health, food in the pantry and a plan for the day. It’s good to be reminded that God is interested – and does something—about even the seemingly most insignificant details of our life—like making shoes last.

By Judy Hagey, Director of Writing Projects with Ascending Leaders and freelance writer and editor