Feet

John 13: 3ff
Jesus....got up from the table...poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him....After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."

For my birthday last year, Wayne gave me a gift certificate for a spa. I put off using the gift certificate because I feel very self-conscious about my body. However, the gift was only good for a year - and with my birthday coming up soon, I knew I had to "use it or lose it."

Last week, I looked over the information sheet provided with the gift certificate. The spa offers a variety of choices - everything from head to toe - literally!

One of the things I chose was a pedicure.

Lauren filled a small ceramic tub with hot water and some soap. "Put your feet in," she instructed. "Tell me if the temperature is too hot."

My feet looked rough, calloused and tired. I lowered them into the shallow tub. The hot water felt wonderful on my feet, massaged by the air bubbles being forced into the water by the jets on the sides of the tub. Lauren sat across from me, a towel draped over her shoulder. She instructed me to put my right foot onto a padded ledge just beyond the tub. While my left foot soaked in the water, Lauren took my right foot and trimmed my toenails. Then she took an emery board and smoothed the edges of my toenails. She used an orangewood stick to ease back my cuticles. When she was done with that, Lauren took a callus remover and gently rubbed the bottom of my feet and toes, smoothing out the ugly, rough patches.

She gently put my foot back into the water and then repeated the process with my left foot. "So far, so good," I thought to myself.

My left foot returned to the tub so that Lauren could work more magic on my right foot in the next step. She took a scrub smelling of chocolate and raspberry and worked it into my foot. These weary bones were starting to come alive as she massaged the grainy scrub into my foot. She did the same to my left foot. Happy feet! I was getting happy feet!

Lauren rinsed off the scrub and then took both my feet and wiped them with the towel she had on her shoulder. She took a cream and massaged each foot generously for several minutes each. When she was all done, the old, dry skin was gone and my feet appeared to glow.

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Let's face it. Feet are not exactly the cleanest part of anyone's body. Feet bear the weight of their owner. Barefooted, feet pick up the dirt wherever they go. Feet stuffed in shoes get hot and sweaty. They are usually ignored and taken for granted until something goes wrong.

Jesus took the miserable, dusty, smelly, callused feet of his disciples into his hands and held them just as Lauren did with mine. I wonder if the disciples felt embarrassed because I kinda did. I felt my own unworthiness, lowliness: Why would anyone want to take a stranger's feet into her hands - even for pay? I wonder if the disciples felt that, too. Why would a teacher hold and clean the foot of his student?

And make note of this, too! Embarrassed as the disciples may have felt (did they want to crawl away and hide?) Jesus had to kneel - or at least be lower than they were - in order to clean their feet. A pose of humbleness. A pose of servanthood. All of a sudden the one who is feeling embarrassed - almost beneath another - is elevated in a way. What a paradox!

And note this, as well: Jesus was taking the ugliest and misshapen parts of the disciples bodies and making them clean, giving these ignored appendages some much needed TLC. Just goes to show that Jesus doesn't ignore anything about us. He loves every part - blisters, hangnails, calluses and all.

It is the season of Lent. In a few weeks we will remember the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. We will remember Jesus' act of servanthood. Help me, Lord, to find ways to serve you and others so that all may be elevated by knowing your amazing love for them.

My feet are glowing!

Jesus wants us all to glow.