Saturday, June 13, 2009

We Up in Footlocker, I'm Looking Like I Need Those

I'm studying the book of Ruth with a sweet group of friends from my MOPS group. I'm so thankful Kelley M. decided to head up the summer study as it's usually such a time of distraction and busyness for me. It's good to have a group of women to be held accountable to. I also am excited to get to better know the woman whose famous words, even if you've never read the book, you've likely heard at a wedding..."Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried."

Sometimes I read through a passage so many times, I get in the habit of breezing through details. It's so much more fun, though, to stop and consider the cultural traditions, the purpose behind a law, the intention behind the events, etc., which is what a study gives you the chance to do.

Well, I just re-read the story of Ruth and became fascinated at the exchange between Boaz and the first-in-line relative. At the end of their discussion, the relative agrees to relinguish the right to the land and the right to marry Ruth. They seal the deal with the relative handing Boaz his sandal.

In those times, the giving of a shoe symbolized an agreement was made between the two parties. I began to wonder what it must've been like to walk home with just one shoe. I mean, if that were still a thing today, Brian wouldn't have even had to tell me if our offer on this house was accepted back in '01. I could've just watched for my hubby's feet to shuffle up the apartment driveway. Or, when the Cowboys made a last minute trade for Roy Williams last fall, would Jerry Jones have walked into Lawry's Steakhouse, single-shoed, and ordered up a steak to celebrate? Would Nelly still be stompin' in his Air Force Ones or in his Air Force One?

I know the times were different, but I still wonder. If you had to stop off at the local market to pick up beans for your wife's casserole, was everyone okay with you walking around in one shoe? Did Joseph of Arimathea's wife ever see her hubby come home single shoed and exclaim, "Dadgumit, Joe! What'd you do? Go off and give away our tomb again? Where am I supposed to be buried if you keep doing that?!"

Did you have a bunch of single shoes at your house or did you end up disposing of the remaining shoe? Were all sandals the same back then? I am assuming they didn't have a Footlocker in Bethlehem. Were they able to go out and buy a single matching shoe to replace the one promised away?

And what did the recipient do with the single sandal anyway? File it away in their desk? Did they write on it to distinguish which shoe legalized which agreement?

What do a bunch of shoes with no matches look like? Hmm...

I went straight to the cabinet by our front door. We store our shoes there in an attempt to keep things looking orderly and in an attempt to have our shoes all in the same place.

Still, I managed to find all these shoes with no matches.

It appears either my little fellas have a habit of stripping their shoes off outside/all over the house/your house/our car/your car/the store/the park/the pool or they've been making some preschool type trades. You know, "I'll give you my Scooby Doo slipper if you'll let me have some of your goldfish." Which may be a justifiable trade.

We love our goldfish.

33 ounces of pure delicious. Made with whole grain, mind you.

Out of curiosity, I dug around the shoe cabinet more.

I'll have to get back with you on JB's excuse...


Addendum: Since the author of the Ruth study commented on this blog post (Ack! How's my hair?!), I should mention the name of the series she wrote. She created the Coffee Cup Series and the book we're reading is Premium Roast with Ruth. Very cute book titles! And, I love the format of the series, daily readings where passages from the Bible are actually printed there in the study so there's no flipping back and forth between this and your Bible. Soooo convenient! I also love the spiral binding. Makes for such an easy way to bring this book with you and read it wherever. I read it while the boys I babysat today were sleeping! The author's name, BTW, is Sandra Glahn. Loving the study!

3 comments:

aspire2 said...

LOL!

Country Asian Guy said...

ROR! That's Raugh Out Roud in Asianese. I guess I've never cut any deals because as far as I know, I keep track of mis zapatos. That's Spanish for my shoes. That's an interesting technique and a very profound series of questions you ask. I'm going to guess that everyone wore Jerusalem Cruisers so they had multiple pairs at home or they had FootAction/Foot Locker stores that sold single sandals. Or sandals that were not with other sandals.

Country Asian Guy said...

And by not with, I mean they were not currently involved with any other sandals at the time. Not to say they've never been in a relationship with other sandals, but they're available at the moment.

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