Growing up reading or listening to fairy stories, I was attracted mostly to stories of poor shoemakers who fell asleep at their bench and and woke up in the morning to find that elves or fairies or an angel had come in the night and completed the work, to their very great joy, and prosperity.

This morning in reading Lamentations I had the same reaction: I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning: great is His faithfulness. Therefore I will wait for Him. (Lamentations 3:19-24)

Poor shoemakers show up in many of the old stories, including at least two by Leo Tolstoy. (Where Love Is God Is, and What Men live By) They are almost always deserving persons, sometimes bitter, but always hard working. Their situation seems hopeless until there is a supernatural intervention and they respond with joy and virtue.

The writer of Lamentations experienced hardship and the destruction of his home and country, but in the midst of despair, the Spirit of God opened his mind to the love and goodness of God’s own character. It’s a dramatic turn-around and it’s his only sustenance in a very dark time for Israel and for the writer. The invisible Spirit intervenes in his lament, with the greater power of love and compassion.

The fairy tales hint of a grace and a goodness that comes to certain worthy souls, but the Bible presents a strong , rugged connection that can be grasped and even understood.

The writer knows of God and says, “Therefore I will wait for Him.”

This interior knowledge of God appears in the new Testament even more than in the Old. Jesus himself said, The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you.(Luke 17:20&21) John wrote, in his first letter, (4:15) If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in Him.

It may be that poor shoemakers are closer to God than the rest of us, but the Bible doesn’t say that. Rather, it opens the door of God’s kingdom to everyone, rich or poor, strong or weak, to become indwelt by God’s Spirit. Maybe somehow we are all poor shoemakers at heart.

Love in Him,

Prue