Foot Exam

Chances are you do not think of your feet as one of your more attractive features. Chances are you don’t think all that often about the appearance of your feet at all! And if you do, it’s probably more self-consciousness than conceit. We just don’t normally think of feet as beautiful. Often, we feel just the opposite! In fact, a few of us may even shy away from wearing sandals, or be a little bit ill at ease when we have to take our shoes off for the podiatrist, or if the church should decide to do a Maundy Thursday foot-washing! But even if we don’t have a foot-phobia, or a reticence about our own feet, chances are we don’t view them as being all that attractive.

And yet the Bible says that our feet may indeed be beautiful! “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS” (Romans 10.15).

The “good news” that Paul has in view there is the good news about Jesus – that “word of Christ” that has the power to redeem men, women, boys, and girls of every stripe, and class, and social strata, and culture. This is the only message that saves, is it not? The message of Christ crucified; Christ our substitute; Christ our righteousness, and hope, and salvation, and Lord! People are hopelessly lost without Him … but joyously saved with Him! And so what a privilege it is to go and speak His name; to go and spread His fame; to bring the tidings that God’s Son has come into the world as the friend of sinners and “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This is the “good news”! And the feet that carry it from place to place are beautiful, Paul says!

Beautiful feet? When they are in motion for the sake of the gospel, absolutely! Beautiful are the feet that trudge through airport terminals and baggage claims, so that we might get on planes and go on mission. The feet that amble over to the neighbor’s house to bring them a meal when baby comes, and to speak to them briefly of how we might become children of the heavenly Father. The feet that walk to the cafeteria with a co-worker, hoping that over lunch we might whet his or her appetite for the gospel. The feet that stride side-by-side with the little ones, bringing them to the house of the Lord Sunday by Sunday. The feet that carry us through the neighborhoods, knocking on doors and telling of the Savior … or that meander through the crowds at a public event, looking for opportunities to share Jesus … or that tread the nursing home hallways, sharing the love of Christ with those who are near the end of their journeys. The feet that take us to the mailbox, where we send hand-written gospel letters that we hope might be read and re-read for the glory of God.

If you will use them to get you to places where you might show and tell Jesus, your feet can indeed be beautiful! Are they? If you were to go in for a spiritual foot exam, would you be embarrassed to take of your shoes (so to speak), and let your feet be seen? Would I? How beautiful, really, are our feet? Never so much as when they are moving for the sake of the gospel! Never so lovely as when they are, as it were, dirty and calloused from tramping the highways and hedges, telling good news! So give yourself a foot exam, and ask the Lord, this summer, to give you beautiful feet!