Rev. Randy R Sturzenbecher
It’s just a pair of boots, leather and wood.
Black leather with a little white stitching.
They fit well and will offer many miles of taking the path less traveled.
The boots do tell a story other than a gift from good friends or made in Texas.
The boots cover my broken ankle and foot with the Hide from another.
Blood had to be shed for me to walk.
The leather is black, the color of dark, death and sin.
The hide was not that color originally as God made it.
Man did this.
The heel is wood, from a tree somewhere that carries the weight of my brokenness.
Very much like the tree that carried the weight of Jesus.
His blood shed as the perfect sacrifice for my hide, my darkness, my sin.
Around the outside of the black leather and just above the wooden heel are two rows of white stitching. The thread weaves in and out of the soul of the boot binding it all together.
In and out the white strands stand in stark contrast to the black of the Hide and then it hides again. Much like my life, saint and sinner day in and day out.
The light of Christ’s holiness and forgives shines and then is hidden by my darkness and sin.
The prefect white stitch holds it all together…. the soul the hide God’s perfect redeemed Creation in Jesus.
There in only one hole in the boot for me to put my brokenness into. Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life no one come to the Father except through me.”
There is only one way in… to walk…in Jesus.
These boots will walk and kneel in front of the altar as they lead me to the pulpit to preach.
They will carry me as I walk with hurting families through the valley of the shadow of death.
They will support me as I promise hope in a dead Savior who sacrificed His blood and hide for me.
Jesus now lives and has covered my brokenness that I may live to walk in His ways.
They will protect my feet from all the things that seek to stumble and stain me.
The boots are a gift. Underserved, but given out of love from good friends, very much like Jesus giving His life for mine out of love and so underserved.
Rev Randy R Sturzenbecher is pastor at Divine Shepherd Lutheran Church. Black Hawk, SD.
