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The Shoe Shine Boy “Estimated waiting time five years? Five years to get a hotel room?” “That’s right”, confirmed the clerk at the airport information desk. “It would seem you haven’t heard of that particular hotel, but that’s the way it is. I put my name down four years ago so I’m on my last lap – only one more year to go”. “But what’s so special about it?” “Why don’t you go and see for yourself while you’re here; meanwhile, let’s find you something else right away”. The hotel in question looked thoroughly dilapidated from the outside, in keeping with the rather run down neighborhood in which I eventually found it. Nothing daunted, I entered the lobby, made for the only desk, and inquired about a room. The clerk mentioned a date five years hence, adding they’d yet to have a cancellation in the fifteen years they’d been open, but if I’d like to be no. 69 on the waiting list, I had only to ask. I had already made up mind to take the first available date on which I could secure five confirmed reservations for the small alumni group I planned to surprise. “I’m sorry”, came the reply, “but we only accept reservations in person: it’s our way of ensuring we know well in advance who to expect and when”. “But why is that so important?” “Because that way we can extend to you a truly personal welcome. I grant you that may seem unusual but then we are not your average hotel”. “Well, then, can I at least see a room? I’m afraid I’ve not been too impressed with what I’ve seen so far”. “I’m sorry again, but they’ve all been taken and we make it a point never to disturb our guests”. “How long can I stay if I make a reservation?” “Just the one night: we don’t take reservations for longer”. “How ever do you get people to stay here under these conditions?” “Oh, there’s never any shortage of people wanting to stay here – never has been and doubt there ever will be”. “Alright, then: how much does a room cost for just one night?” “There’s no charge – everything’s been paid for already”. “By whom?” “You’ll find that out when you come”. I left the thoroughly unprepossessing looking but intriguing hotel determined to get my alumni group to come along and register. I wanted to do something really different when my turn came around to organize our annual get together, and the mystery surrounding the hotel suggested to me it could be just the sort of unusual venue I was seeking. Well, the group did come and register and the five-year wait did not seem all that long. Came the day, the five of us trooped in, signed the register, and were escorted upstairs. What a surprise awaited us. Our individual suites – not merely rooms – were the most sumptuous we had ever seen anywhere, the more so given the run down look of the hotel from the outside and the surroundings in which it was located. Standing just inside each suite was a uniformed member of the hotel staff who quickly told us it was their duty to see to our every need during our stay: all we had to do was ask. One of the many services the hotel had to offer, one that struck me personally as particularly unusual, was a complimentary shoeshine. As our hostess explained, we could hand our shoes to her, leave them outside the door, visit the shoeshine boy near the lobby, or make an appointment to meet him any time of the day or night. I’d never had my shoes shined before, and given the lengths to which the hotel seemed to go in order to provide the service, I thought I’d take advantage of it. My shoes were returned within the hour with the following short note inside them: Dear Querida – I’m sorry to hear you carry so much guilt around with you, for this results in your hiding from God who can remove all guilt, as can His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Read how God provided atonement for the real guilt of Adam and Eve, or how Nathan confronted David with his sins, paving the way for his repentance and confession. Contrast this with Esau who found no place for repentance. Take heart form knowing that if you confess and turn your back on sin, you will have mercy and peace. Claim with confidence the truth that Jesus Christ removes all our sins and sets us free. Pray for a clear conscience with your sins blotted out, knowing there is no condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus. Finally, forget the past, look to the future and strive to win the prize for which God is calling you because of all His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, did for you. In His name, The Shoe Shine Boy PS Love your name – hadn’t come across it before so looked it up – see it means ‘beloved’ in Spanish. I was stunned. How could a total stranger know of the agony I suffered from the guilt I carried with me and had done these so many years? Noticing my incredulous reaction, the angel (as I now call her), who had been standing by the door when I first arrived, walked quickly but quietly to the table beside my bed, and picked up the copy of the Bible that was there. Opening it at the bookmark she showed me the words, “Please come quickly, Lord, and rescue me”. After we had said these words together, I immediately felt as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to shout for joy. I knew I radiated my newfound sense of liberation and was anxious to tell my alumni friends what had brought it about. When I joined them for dinner, they were surprised and delighted to hear what I had to say; they were also intrigued to learn what the little note inside their own shoes would tell them. During a suitably lighthearted and quite superb dinner in a dining-room that matched our private suites for opulence, we had an engaging conversation trying to forecast what the shoeshine boy would tell each of us in turn. With almost indecent haste, we drank our coffees and all but ran to our suites to ask for our shoes to be shined, only to find that three of the other four had already been so. As we gathered together in my suite, the first note we read carried the following words: Learn not to let stress cause you to worry. Pray to God at such times for He cares about our stress. He is always with us, so wait upon Him and let Him be your refuge when stress, which delegating can alleviate, comes to call. Hand all your worries and cares to God, for He only wants what’s best for you. Have hope in God, don’t be anxious about anything. Tell God your needs and thank Him for taking care of them. Put God first in your life and do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. If you do these things, you will find a peace that we humans cannot understand, while your heart and your thoughts will be at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus. In His name, The Shoe Shine Boy With equally uncanny perception, the second note we read said: Be comforted in the knowledge that all grief will end. Friends are there to comfort each other, so make the most of your time together. Though God does not prevent grief coming into our lives, He shows compassion at the same time: so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone; instead He sees our earthly life as preparation for the greater joys of heaven. God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, was a man of sorrows and familiar with grief, even weeping at the grave of Lazarus. Moreover, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It is never easy losing a loved one, but I hope it will be a consolation to you to know that, through His own death and resurrection, Christ defeated sin and death, so that to believe in Him now means: We shall never die; we have everlasting life; we have a place assured in heaven, and we shall take part in the bodily resurrection. After all, it was Jesus Himself who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though they die like ordinary people, yet will they live once more. And whoever lives and believes in me will gain eternal lie and never pass away”. So, join with me in saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of His abundant mercy has given us the privilege of life anew. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead enables us to live with high expectations, for God has kept a priceless inheritance for us, pure and undefiled, which nothing can ever change for the worse. And, because we trust in Him, Almighty God will protect His children unto salvation to be revealed on the last day”. Finally, always remember when your loved one comes to mind, that, in the fullness of time, God will take away everyone's sorrow, while all death, sadness, crying and pain will be no more, for the past will be gone forever. In His name, The Shoe Shine Boy The third note was just as apt, if a little more restrained. People, including you, should always be ready to listen, but slow to respond and to become angry, for anger prevents you leading the good life God wants you to have. So do not give way to anger any more, or to wrath, malice, blasphemy and bad language. Remember, it is the fool who gives vent to his anger, while a wise person is self-controlled. Also, it is the gentle answer that causes anger to diminish, but a word spoken harshly causes anger. I urge you to leave your old self behind because it is being corrupted by its impure desires. Instead, adorn the mantle of a new self, created to be righteous and holy like God. Thus will your attitude of mind be renewed, as you live by the Spirit, no longer satisfying the desires of your sinful nature, but letting Christ’s word permeate your whole being as you teach and admonish one another wisely. The result will be a clear conscience in the sight of God and all people. In His name, The Shoe Shine Boy At the end of reading these three notes, our ministering angel showed each of us in turn the words in the Bible, “Please come quickly, Lord, and rescue me”, which we repeated eagerly out loud. Once again, ‘fullness of joy’ enveloped all four of us. But where was the fifth and final note? The shoes in question had been duly returned immaculately clean but there was no note inside them. “Wait on God, take courage and He will give you strength, only wait on the Lord”. This was the passage in the Bible our chosen angel read to us. Why, we wanted to know, but she only smiled in reply, even though we reminded her she herself had said it was her duty to see to our every need during our stay. All we could do was ask, but still she only smiled. As it was beginning to get late, we decided to make an appointment with the shoe shine boy the following morning before checking out after breakfast. By now we weren’t just intrigued enough to meet him because of what he had written so perceptively and helpfully to four of us, we had to know why there was no fifth note. After a blissful night’s sleep in the very lap of luxury and to the accompaniment of beautiful music in which someone clearly knew our individual tastes very well indeed, we met for breakfast as planned. It was truly a meal to set before the proverbial king. The Shoe Shine Boy proved in fact to be a man of mature years, great eloquence, an incisive knowledge of the Bible, and a delightful sense of humor. He knew at once who we were, and as if to take the wind out of our sails, handed the fifth member of our group a note which read as follows: I kept this note from you until now so that you could experience your lack of patience for the last time. From this moment on, I want you to look at the causes of your impatience in an entirely different light. I’m asking you to be joyful in times of trial, knowing that this testing of your faith will produce patience. By letting patience take firm hold of you, you will have a sense of well being and fulfillment such as you never had before: indeed, you will quickly learn to be content whatever your circumstances. If you will take this positive approach when adversity strikes, you will learn the meaning of perseverance, of developing a strong character, of knowing what it is to be hopeful in a way that will never cause you to be disappointed. Practice being patient with everybody, specifically ensuring that everyone realizes two wrongs do not make a right. Strive at all times to do what is right yourself, not just for your own good but for that of everyone else. Also, don’t get worked up if you seem to miss out while good things are happening to people you don’t feel to be deserving of them. It is a sin to be impatient and for this you must ask God for His forgiveness. Then, leave the matter in His hands and wait patiently for Him, obediently directing all your thoughts to His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. After all, you were crucified with Christ, hence it isn’t you who lives any more but Christ who lives within you. Whereas you previously lived for yourself, now you live by faith in Jesus Christ who loves you and who gave Himself for you. Having thus been raised with Jesus, set your heart on heavenly things, especially the fruit of the Spirit which, along with patience, includes love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, faith, meekness, longsuffering and temperance. And speaking of love, remember how patient it is; it does not give way to envy, boasting or pride. It is polite, not self-seeking or easily angered, and does not keep a tally of things that went wrong. Try your best to put into practice the things I have written to you about, seeing them as promises for a better life. Thus will your faith lead you to a life of high moral value, to a deeper knowledge of God, and to the exercise of self-control. This in turn will lead you to patient endurance, to godliness, to love of those of the household of faith, and thence to real love for all people. Be patient then up to the time of the Lord’s coming. Just as the farmer waits patiently for the crops to grow and the rain to come, you too must be patient, standing firm, for the Lord will soon come. In His name, The Shoe Shine Boy Turning the open Bible round that lay in front of him so that we could all read it, The Shoe Shine Boy pointed to the words, “Please come quickly, Lord, and rescue me”. He invited us to read them aloud, which we did. Once again, there was that glorious feeling of a heavy burden being lifted off our shoulders as our whole beings were enveloped in pure joy. After allowing us to savor the moment, The Shoe Shine Boy went on to explain that an estimated waiting time of five years to obtain a reservation at the hotel was to remind us that it took a long time for the chosen people of God to enter the promised land. This they did after many years spent in the wilderness, hence the hotel’s symbolic appearance of being in a dilapidated state in a rather run down neighborhood. That there were no cancellations was because, once people had experienced the love of God, there was no turning back for them. Similarly, the fact that many were called but few were chosen was represented by the long waiting list of people wanting to stay at the hotel. Reservations in person recalled to mind that, one day, everyone will have to stand before God on judgment day, when it was hoped they would find a truly personal welcome awaiting them. Since no one except Jesus Christ Himself had ever had a foretaste of heaven, likewise potential guests at the hotel were denied the opportunity, either to see what a room – or rather a suite – was like in advance, or to disturb a guest. A stay limited to one night was a reminder that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. And despite all the evil in the world, there was never any shortage of people wanting to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, for that was what the truly sumptuous appointments in the hotel were intended to represent. No one was ever charged for anything at the hotel to remind them that Jesus Christ had paid for the sins of the whole world through His death on the cross at Calvary. The price of all the wrongs we had ever done, all the sins we had ever committed, all the iniquities of which we were guilty, had already been paid. Just as Jesus had come in the clouds with His angels, so was each guest to experience the presence of their own ministering angel. Likewise, the availability of The Shoe Shine Boy at all times of the day or night served to remind guests that Jesus was Himself with them always, even unto the end of the world. During His ministry on earth, Jesus preached Good News to the poor, healed the broken hearted, set prisoners free, caused the blind to see, and released those who were oppressed, hence He well knew the cause of each person’s suffering. He also knew how to give rest to all who were afflicted in any way, and to bring them joy in the fullest meaning of the word. God gives sleep to those who love Him, while the beautiful music with which each guest is serenaded reminds us of the angels who surround the throne of God singing praises to His name day and night. “In a word”, concluded The Shoe Shine Boy, “we want to give as many guests as possible a brief glimpse of the beauty and wonder of heaven so that they never, ever aspire to be anywhere else when their course on earth is run”. “But why a shoeshine boy?” “Because in a beautiful display of humble servanthood, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. In this day and age, I realize I can’t do that for our guests, but I can clean their shoes, and this I felt was the closest I could get to following the example of our beloved Savior. Now let me get you copies of your accounts so that you can be on your way”. “But……” “I know”, said The Shoe Shine Boy with a smile, putting up a restraining hand, “your account has already been paid, but we find our guests like to take with them a written confirmation of that fact”. So saying, he handed each of us a beautiful leather folder. Inside was an account on the hotel’s letterhead that read as follows: To giving you words that will last forever, even though the sky and the earth will not To showing you how to live, through being the embodiment of God’s word To bringing you the truth about how you can be saved To having your sins forgiven in my name if you will but have faith in me To enabling you to live in peace with God because of who I am To speaking to God for you through being at His right hand To having God accept you because of your faith in me To treating you better then you deserve, making you acceptable to God, and giving you the hope of eternal life To teaching you that you will receive whatever you request if you pray in faith To teaching you to be an adopted child of God To showing kindness to you in accordance with God’s plan made even before time began To leading you and making your faith complete To showing you the true God who gives eternal life To giving you peace, not such that the world can give, but that only I can give, and as a result of which you should neither be troubled nor afraid; also, because you are mine, for enabling God to grant you peace that no one can understand To enabling you to say “Amen” because I said “Yes” to every one of God’s promises To teaching you how to pray; that when you and at least one other agree about something for which you are praying, God will make it happen; further, that whenever two or three of you get together in my name, I will be with you To teaching you that the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength; also, that the next most important commandment is to love everyone else as much as you love yourself To forgiving you your sins and setting you free To understanding your every weakness To allowing my blood to wash all your sins away To teaching you to ask that you might receive; to seek that you may find, and to knock that the door will be opened for you To helping you when you are tempted To teaching you to give God first place in your life and to do the things He wants you to do To teaching you that how you treat others is how you will be treated yourself To teaching you that, those who have heard my message and have faith in God, will live forever oooOOOooo In the far right hand column of the account, where all the entries had been bracketed together, were the words, ‘No Charge’. Across the face of the account was the imprint of a very large rubber stamp bearing the words in red, ‘Paid in Full’. We were all silent for a long time. Eventually, I was able to compose myself sufficiently to thank the Shoe Shine Boy on behalf of us all as fervently as I could for all that he had done for us. I then went on to ask if there was any way in which we could even hope to repay his overwhelming kindness towards us. “Like Mary”, came the reply, “please keep in your heart the things I have written and spoken to you about, and always remember, as I have tried very hard to do, that when you see someone in need of any kind, it is more blessed to give than to receive”. “I know I speak for all of us when I say that we will most certainly do these things”, I responded quickly. “And speaking of giving, we’d like to give our personal thanks to the owner of the hotel for the exemplary service we have received during our stay, most especially from you. Would you be able to arrange for us to meet the owner, please?” “I am the owner”, smiled The Shoe Shine Boy in reply. For further reading: Genesis 3:7-11, 21; Psalms 32:5; Romans 3:23-24; Psalms 19:12-13; Romans 3:9-12; John 16:23-24; 2 Samuel 11:1-12, 25; Psalms 51; Hebrews 12:17; Proverbs 28:13; Ephesians 2:14; 1 John 1:9; Acts 24:16; Isaiah 44:22; John 8:36; Romans 7:18, 23-25; Psalms 40:13; Romans 8:1; Philippians 3:13-14; 4:4-9; Psalms 69:1-36; 2 Corinthians 4:8-12; Romans 8:31-39; Isaiah 40:30-31; Psalms 62:1-8; Exodus 18:13-26; 1 Peter 5:7; Psalms 42:5; 34:4; Matthew 6:33-34; Revelation 21:3-4; Job 2:12-13; Isaiah 53:3; Lamentations 3:32; Matthew 5:4; John 11:35, 25-26; 3:16; 14:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Mark 8:36; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Psalms 27:4-6; James 1:19-20; Colossians 3:8; Proverbs 29:11; 15:1; Ephesians 4:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:16; Colossians 3:16; Psalms 27:14; Hebrews 5:14; James 1:2-4; Philippians 4:11; Romans 5:3-5; 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15; Psalms 37:1,7; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:1; Galatians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 13:4-5; 2 Peter 1:5-9; James 5:7-8; 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 28:20; Luke 4:18; Mark 13:31; 2 Timothy 3:16; Ephesians 1:13; Acts 10:43; Romans 5:1, 8:34; Galatians 2:16; Titus 3:7; Matthew 21:22; 2 Timothy 1:9; Hebrews 12:2; 1 John 5:20; 14:27; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Matthew 6:5-15, 18:19-20; Mark 12:28-31; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 1:7; Matthew 7:7; Hebrews 2:18; Luke 6:38; John 5:24; Luke 2:19; Acts 20:35 |