for a big person
October 22, 2010 (Friday)
A few months ago, Bud Gibson took me out to eat at Yao Ming’s restaurant on Westheimer. The food was great and the service excellent. The foyer has glass cases displaying various types of memorabilia, including Yao’s shoe (size 18).
Sometimes we hear the expression, “It will take a big man to fill his shoes.” When that is said, it’s usually about a person who had died, retired, or just moved on. It’s about his job. “No one can possibly take his place,” is sometimes said. In Yao’s case, there are not very many men in basketball who wear a size 18 shoe. So the saying stays: “It will take a big man to fill his shoes.”
I remember one day when I was a kid and my Uncle Lloyd took me to Kelly’s Oyster Bar on Texas Avenue, across the street from the Rice Hotel. We were talking about the circus and he told me that he had seen a man from the circus who was so tall he had to stoop to go through the entrance doors of the Rice Hotel. We were looking at those doors as he spoke. My uncle went on to say that the giant man sold replicas of his rings and they were almost big enough to fit my wrist. Wow, I was impressed and wanted to see that man.
There’s another kind of “big” man or woman. The persons we are speaking of are magnanimous, generous people. They know how to overlook insults. They are not selfish or self-seeking. They think first of others. Whenever one of those people pass from the human scene, “it will take a big person to fill those shoes.” When I think of people like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa, I am overwhelmed with the thought that some people’s shoes are so big that no one is likely to ever fill them. We can, however, let their lives serve as noble examples for us. We may never fill their shoes, but we have shoes of our own to fill as we learn to love the Lord with everything within us. As Paul said to young Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 NIV).
“Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow–we will follow the steps of Jesus where e’er we go.”
What kind of person is filling your shoes today?