Shoe-leather Christianity

Christian Century, Jan 25, 2003

Twenty-five years ago Kansan Helga Schmidt was in a check-out line while doing some Christmas shopping when she realized a young brother and sister ahead of her couldn't buy a pair of women's shoes because they were $3 short. She gave them the money, and afterwards discovered that the children were buying the shoes for their mother, who, they said, was "sick and going to heaven," perhaps even before Christmas.

They thought the shoes matched the heavenly streets of gold that their Sunday school teacher had told them about. Schmidt wrote up this story, for a class she was taking and the teacher turned it in to her church paper; someone later submitted it to the editors of Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul, where it was first published without crediting Schmidt. Since then the story has inspired a best-selling song and book, a Web site (newsongonline.com), and a made-for-TV movie (The Christmas Shoes) which aired December 1. Schmidt has gotten no royalties out of these products; indeed, the TV movie didn't even credit her. "Other people can get rich," says Schmidt, "but I'm rich in spirit because of it" (Mennonite Weekly Review, December 23).