Saint Christophers

Allow me to introduce my new pair of Saint Christophers.

Our childhood playmates were Australians who had gone to Great Britain for study leave. The island where we lived off the coast of Malaysia was a veritable treasure box of fun and exciting adventures to invent. In part, it's because the island offered such variety. One of these bits of diversity available was the variety of school systems available: the local Malay system, the Chinese schools, the British schools left over from the colonial days, the Australian school across the strait on the mainland, and our little one-room American school on the mission hospital compound.

One of the three boys we played with nearly every day, Jamie, was trotted off to British preschool by his mother, who was an elegant Australian woman. Jamie's school seemed rather exotic to me; they had to wear uniforms with shoes that were more substantial than the flip-flops or bare feet we traveled to school in every day.

Jamie got to wear Saint Christophers.

Well, that wasn't really the name of the shoes, I guess, but I call them that because Jamie went to St. Christopher's School, and I associated his style of shoe with their uniforms. And uniforms, may I add, were very cool. They meant that you were special. They meant that you belonged to a group of people instead of sticking out like I did in a country where most people didn't look like me.

You know how there are sights or smells that bring back strong memories to you from your past? As soon as I saw these Saint Christophers for sale in Wal-mart last week for just $22, I had to try them on. And joy of all joys, they were so very comfortable, they could not be resisted!

I delight in putting them on. I delight in walking around in them. I delight in the slightly British feel that comes over me when I'm wearing Saint Christophers. I delight in the sense that they make me feel special, like I belong in them, like I'm part of a secret society with access to lovely places and books and ideas and a civilization that is neat and tidy and stalwart and dignified.

Saint Christophers. Because the shoes we wear are oh-so-important to our well-being.

Stand firm then, with ... your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Eph. 6:14, 15