The other day as I was heading to school, my mind wandered to the thought of feet. Now this might have been in response to the fact that my feet hurt a lot now, or the fact that my daughter needed new shoes, or any number of reasons. Whatever the reason, I was thinking of feet. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks about feet; just think of all the sayings we have about them: feet first, one foot in front of another, put your best foot forward, and – my favorite – put your foot in your mouth. I do that one a lot. Since this was so capturing my attention, I immediately started wondering where these thoughts were leading. I had the distinct feeling that there was more to this line of thinking than was originally apparent.
About two days later, while doing my Bible study about the tabernacle, I came upon the most interesting passage. It was about the priests washing their hands and feet before entering the holy of holies. There was that part about feet again. I immediately perked up. Where was this going? As I continued to research, I was of course led to the passage in John 13 where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet on the night of his betrayal. I knew I was on to something.
Now many of you may have already known this, but somehow it became new and clear to me that day. Through salvation we are washed in the blood of Jesus and we become children of God – so what was the foot washing about? It has to do not with relationship, but with fellowship.
The following story is what made it all make sense to me. It involves my daughter. Now, I love my daughter. We were blessed to be able to adopt her 13 years ago and there hasn’t been a dull moment since! She and her brother are the love of my life. I feel myself beaming every time I say, “That’s my baby.” Having said all that, I have to confess that my daughter has stinky feet. Not just a little odiferous – we’re talking real stink! Remember Kimmy Gibbler in the old Full House episodes? Yes, my daughter has Kimmy Gibbler stinky feet. She can clear a room with the odor! No matter how many times I’ve tried to make her wear socks, scrub her feet, use odor eaters, do SOMETHING – the odor remains.
One night it occurred to me that perhaps she didn’t know how to really clean her feet. Like most kids, she was probably just sticking them in the water and thinking they were clean. Now if I’d told her I wanted to wash her feet, I’d have gotten a real argument. On this night however, I think the smell was even getting to her so when I asked if I could give her a “pedicure” she said yes!
Hooray! I was finally going to be able to get rid of that smell! I prepared the water and washed her feet, then scrubbed them and got rid of any rough places, then I dried them and rubbed them with good smelling lotion and finally painted those cute little toenails. Now before you think I am some wonderful or crazy mother, let me explain. I love my daughter more than she can possibly imagine. Nothing she could do would change that. Her feet however, were keeping us apart! I couldn’t stand the smell and I was willing to do whatever it took to change that – including wash her feet.
We’re like that with our Father God. He loves us. We have been bathed in salvation and made his children….but life has a way of getting between our toes and leaving a stench. That stench of sin separates us from fellowship with God. The only way to get rid of it is to go to Him and let Him wash us with the water of His Word. Then in love, He anoints our feet with sweet smelling oil. That oil smooths away the rough places and soothes our pain. Best of all, we have fellowship with Him.
So there are the random thoughts on feet. I’ve tried to come up with a great ending, but for now I think I’ll just have to be satisfied with soaking my aching feet in some warm water….and encouraging my daughter to do the same!
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