The Reason It Didn't Fit

A delivery was at the door. My six-year-old daughter and I rushed to it with excitement. Her ballet slippers were finally here. The beautiful red ones that she picked out. I watched her open the pack. She had the biggest grin on her face. She took out the first slipper and squealed.

"Thanks, Mom."

I watched her put her foot into the slipper.

Oh no.

She could not fit the slipper. It was too small. My heart sank. She kept trying several times to make it fit, but there was no way. I finally told her to stop trying. We'd just order a new pair. But she had waited for them, and her hopes were up. She began to cry. I talked to her and hugged her. I told her everything would be okay. She appeared to understand, and she took the slippers to her room.

I went to check on her a few minutes later and found her still trying to fit the slippers.

I could relate to my daughter. I thought about the many times I had hoped something would fit or work out, and it did not. The job I thought was mine. The relationship I thought would last. The plan I was so sure God was behind. I had squeezed my foot into a lot of slippers that were never my size.

It was here that I started talking to God about it.

Sometimes things don't fit because they are not right for us. Instead of waiting for the right fit, or in this case a bigger size slipper, we try to cram our life into something that was not purposed for us. The slipper was for a kid with a smaller foot. It was a good slipper. It was beautiful. It just was not hers.

And that's the part we struggle with the most. It's not that the thing was bad. It's that it was not ours.

I am reminded of the Scripture that says, "A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men" (Proverbs 18:16, NKJV). Your gift will make room for you. Not someone else's gift. Not someone else's slipper. Yours. And when the fit is right, you won't have to force it. You won't have to cry on the floor trying to squeeze into something that was never designed for your foot.

But how many of us are still in the room, trying on slippers that don't fit?

I know I have been. I've applied for jobs that looked great on paper. Better pay, better benefits, better title. And when the door closed, I took it personally. I thought something was wrong with me. I thought maybe I wasn't good enough. Maybe I didn't interview well. Maybe they saw something I couldn't see.

But God saw something I couldn't see too. He saw the fit. And it wasn't there.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." That verse gets quoted a lot, and sometimes we hear it so much that it stops landing. But sit with it for a second. He says He knows the plans. Not you. Him. Which means when something doesn't fit, it's not a mistake. It's not a rejection. It's a redirection from someone who already knows where you're going.

My daughter didn't do anything wrong. She picked beautiful slippers. She was excited. She had faith that they would be perfect. But the size was off. And no amount of pushing, crying, or hoping was going to change that. The slipper had to match the foot. Not the other way around.

We do the same thing with our purpose. We see something that looks good and we want it so badly that we start reshaping ourselves to fit into it. We shrink who we are. We hide parts of ourselves. We ignore the discomfort and the tightness and we tell ourselves it'll stretch out eventually. But the wrong fit doesn't stretch. It just hurts.

Romans 8:28 tells us, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." All things. Even the slippers that didn't fit. Even the closed doors. Even the tears on the bedroom floor. God is working it together. Not just the wins. All of it.

I think about David. Before he was king, he was overlooked. His own father didn't think to bring him in when Samuel came looking for the next king of Israel. Jesse lined up all of his other sons. Every single one of them looked like they could fit the crown. They were tall, strong, impressive. But God told Samuel no, over and over again. None of them were the right fit.

Then someone remembered David. The youngest. The one out in the field with the sheep. The one nobody thought to call. And God said, "That's the one" (1 Samuel 16:12).

David didn't have to force his way into the room. He didn't have to squeeze into someone else's calling. When the time was right, the fit was obvious. Not to the people around him. To God.

If you're in a season where things are not fitting, I want to encourage you. It's not because something is wrong with you. It's because something is right about you. You were made for a specific purpose, and God is not going to let you settle into something that's too small for what He put inside of you.

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." He prepared it beforehand. That means the right fit already exists. You don't have to create it. You don't have to force it. You just have to trust Him long enough to walk into it.

I went back into my daughter's room that evening. The slippers were sitting on her dresser. She had finally stopped trying. I asked her if she was okay. She looked up at me and said, "Can we get the bigger ones?"

That's it. That's the whole lesson.

She didn't ask for different slippers. She didn't give up on ballet. She didn't decide she didn't want red ones anymore. She just needed the right size. The desire was right. The dream was right. The timing and the fit just needed adjusting.

Maybe that's where you are right now. The dream is right. The calling is right. The desire in your heart is from God. But you've been trying to fit into a version of it that's too small. Too small a job. Too small a circle. Too small a vision of yourself. And God is saying, stop trying to make that one fit. I have the right size for you.

Stop crying on the floor over something that was never yours. Get up. Dust yourself off. And ask God for the bigger ones.

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Not the desires of someone else's heart. Yours. The ones He placed there on purpose.

The red slippers were beautiful. But they weren't the end of the story. They were just the beginning. My daughter got her new pair a few days later. The right size. And when she slipped them on, they fit perfectly. No forcing. No crying. Just a grin and a twirl.

That's what the right fit looks like. And it's coming for you too.

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