Cast Your Shoe On The Waters
“He who goes to and fro weeping carrying his bag of seed shall indeed come again with a shout of joy bringing his sheaves with him.” - Psalms 126:6
RING BOLT RAPIDS, SEE YA
After three hours of rafting along the Colorado River down from the massive Hoover Dam, you barely blink on your way through what used to be the infamous Ring Bolt Rapids. There was a great rapid there years ago that tossed boats like little toys. Rafters had to anchor to huge iron rings in the cliffs and use ropes to haul their boats up the raging waters.
Well, the rapids are not so dangerous anymore—in fact, they’re barely there. The next dam built downriver raised the water level so high that now you have to strain your eyes even to see a bump in the calm waters.
Nevertheless on one of my float trips down from massive Hoover dam, one of our not-so-alert campers managed to drop one of his beloved Nike tennis shoes overboard when we yawned our way through the extinct rapids. The current inched it away at a snail’s pace, but he didn’t realize it until it was too far from the boats to retrieve. Bye-bye tennis shoe! He must have been sentimentally attached to the old shoe for he was a bit sullen that night. I had trouble relating.
TENNIE AHOY!
The next morning I walked by the tranquil waters of the river beside our camp to have some time with God. All was quiet, except for the occasional sounds of the cliff swallows darting for breakfast overhead.
As the morning sun painted the top of the cliffs bright orange, my heart filled with praise and awe toward God for His beauty all around me. Then I saw it. The tennie. In the water… coming right toward me.
Huh? Perplexed, I waded in a few feet, retrieved his waterlogged treasure, then tried to figure out how it could possibly have managed to float upriver. Finally, I concluded that it must have somehow got caught in a big eddy (a whirl of water) stirred up by the submerged rocks of the rapids. How convenient!
I tossed the sogged shoe onshore. A verse sprang to mind, “Cast your bread on the waters and after many days it will return to you.” (Ecc.11:1) I laughed.
I have no idea of what Solomon was referring to when he said “bread,” but it surely applied to my friend’s lost shoe. He “cast it”—albeit involuntarily—and it returned. We had a sloshy, but happy, tenderfoot that morning ☺.
SOWING IN HOPE ALL DAY
There’s a spiritual application. God does not want us to grow weary in reaching out to others–or to a specific other. You can think of this as “casting your bread.” The Bible calls it “sowing.”
Ecclesiastes 11:6 says something interesting about this: “Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.”
This verse is significant if you apply it to spiritual sowing in other’s lives. We’re to look for opportunities to help, encourage, and reach out to others in the morning and not miss the opportunities in the afternoon or in the evening. We don’t know when God will mightily use our “sowing,” but we’re to sow in hope and keep on sowing, looking to Him all day long and all evening long for His will
BLESSING WHEN IT’S TOTALLY NOT EXPECTED
It’s common to be “drowsy in heart” in the afternoon as the day gets weary. In business, they say that if you want to get something significant done, do it in the morning. The problem with this in spiritual issues is that you never know when God is going to move.
In Genesis 18, Abraham was sitting in his tent in the heat of the day. This wasn’t morning. Three angels came to visit him and tell him the great news that would change the rest of his life. Abraham rose to help them. He wasn’t slacking in the afternoon. In the process he learned of God’s great plan for him and Sarah.
He was alert and ready to serve when another might have shut down for the day. He received God’s great blessing for himself and his family in the process.
STAY ALERT FOR OTHER’S SAKES
The lesson is straight-forward. Stay alert and don’t miss opportunities–after lunch and beyond. Love God and reach out to bless others morning, noon and night.
So cast your shoe—whoops– I mean your “bread” on the water of others’ lives, And after some days you’ll return to learn about what God did through you!
“What matters most in a person’s life is not the spectacular and heroic acts of devotion, but the little nameless prayers and deeds of love done day-by-day.”