The Slip (A Short Story)

Melodie Sheppard in Tappita, Liberia—1988

Giggling with delight, the two little girls danced and twirled around the room.  Pausing to rest, Melodie’s eyes sparkled as she watched her friend.  Every time Jocelyn twirled, the slip she was wearing flew up, forming a circle of nylon netting.  Never in her four years had Melodie seen such a slip.  “Oh, Mommy,” she said to me wistfully as I watched the girls play. “Look at her.  She has a slip that goes ‘round!”

After Jocelyn’s visit Melodie frequently talked of the enchanting slip.  She wanted one just like it, of course. I told her that Jocelyn and her family had just returned from furlough in the United States, where she had been given the beautiful slip. There was nothing else like this in all of Liberia, much less in our remote town of Tappita. Melodie was disappointed, but brave.

One Wednesday shortly before Christmas I rode my motorcycle down the rutted, dusty road to Tappita's market.  As I neared I was excited to see that, because of the upcoming holiday, there were many more vendors and customers than usual. Voices ricocheted across the outdoor market as Liberians bartered for their fresh fruits and vegetables, palm oil,  dried meats, African cloth and used clothing.

Dismounting, I began to look at the goods displayed on rickety tables and then at the mounds of wrinkled used clothes scattered over clear sheets of plastic on the ground.  Weaving my way through the crowd, I was stopped by a flash of white in the blazing sunlight. To my amazement, there on top of a heaping pile of used clothing was a slip.  And not just any slip.  It was the “slip that went ‘round.” It was exactly Melodie's size.

I was trembling with excitement as I made my purchase.  Yes, I knew God was watching over us as we served Him in Liberia. Yes, I knew God would meet our needs. Yes, I knew God was in the details of our lives.  But that the God of the Universe cared my little Melodie had a slip that delighted her? I was overwhelmed.

Melodie is now an adult and of course the slip is long gone. However, the lesson it taught will never, ever be forgotten. Unbelievable as it may seem and undeserving though we may be, our wonderful God is so good that He actually delights in delighting us.

Melodie Sheppard Kejr with her son Caleb

("The Slip" was first printed in an article in Baptist Mid-Missions' “Women and Missions” in the summer of 1992. Later it was published in Virtue magazine.)