This morning after my husband, Jim, finished his devotion, he walked through the dining room and said, "I'm walking with "happy feet" today". I had to know what he meant by that because I wanted to walk that way too. He further explains, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17) "God has covered me with peace and I am walking in His peace so I have "happy feet". That made me smile. I had been thinking about the last 24 hours and all that so quickly had happened. Jim had arrived home from a mission trip in Honduras. We were happy to be back together and I looked forward to hearing about the trip as well as telling him about my week. We went to dinner before going home. After the meal as we still sat talking a waitress came up and asked him if he had a white Ford Expedition. When he said yes, she asked him to come outside with her. I was so confused so quickly followed him. Someone had broken the back window and taken Jim's brief case. We both felt sick and even sicker when he began to realize what all was in the brief case. He has $500 which one of the team members had just given him, $40 in Honduran money, ipod, Bose headphones, watch (I had given him), video camera, all the videos he had taken in Honduras, Bible, books, journal, notes, passport... The list goes on but those were the big things. We spent the rest of the night calling the police, making a list of everything for the insurance, and just feeling bad about it all. I don't think either of us slept much that night. The next morning Jim was up early ready to see what he could do about his passport. We needed one quickly as we are going to Aruba next week with dear friends. He also needed to get his window fixed in the Expedition and call the insurance company about the loss.
As the day went on we saw things to thank the Lord for:
Jim was safely home, his luggage was not in the car because it was not on the plane (we got it later), for the kind words from friends that helped soothe our hearts, for the company that came to replace the window in the Expedition rather than us having to drive to them, for the lady who was willing to give Jim a discount on expediting the passport so that it will be in our hands tomorrow, for the manager of the restaurant that bought our lunch (we went back to look around the area hoping the thieves had thrown some of the things out) and apologized that this had happened at his restaurant and for the sweet friends who gave us a very generous gift. So today, even though a alot of things have been taken from Jim, no one can take the peace of God from him, or from me. So, like him, I am walking today with "happy feet". And yes, we pray that the people that took the brief case will open the Bible and find forgiveness in Jesus and the peace of God like we have.
