I don’t like feet.
[It’s a phobia, really. They freak me out a little. As in, “keep your feet away from my body, don’t touch my feet and we’ll be best friends; but, touch my feet or put yours anywhere near my body and I’m liable to hit you” kind of freak out.
It’s an irrational phobia, I know. But…eh…:) ]
And, I’m not particularly “girly.”
So, it’s rather ironic that one of the “girliest” things about me is that I like to keep my feet…uh…groomed.
[There is a point to me telling you all of this. Promise.]
As I was coming in from the field today, I was struck by my feet. A few days ago, I’d repainted my toenails. It bothers me to have them unpainted. But, I also don’t like to see the polish line as my toenails grow. You know, where the polish stops and you only see nail? (I wasn’t kidding when I said I like to keep the feet groomed…) So, to solve this little dilemma, I usually paint my toes in a french manicure, where most of the nail has a semi-clear coat over it while the tips of the nails are white.
This is what struck me.
My feet were dirty – like, nasty dirty – but, my toenails were still quite nice; pretty even.
See?
At first, it was just a whimsical observation I voluntarily shared with Cara. I don’t think she was as impressed with my pretty toes and dirty feet as I was. In fact, I’m rather certain she thought I was a bit mental at that moment. But, she humored me graciously.
And, when I sat on my bed and removed my Tevas to clean my feet (with a baby wipe; again…groomed.), the whimsical observation began to turn into something deeper. There was a stark contrast in my toes and the dirt that covered the rest of my feet.
Clean vs. dirty. Pretty vs. ugly.
I began to think about how we, as followers of Jesus, are called to stand out amongst the world…
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” -Matt. 5:16
In order to stand out, though, we’ve got to mix ourselves with the “dirt” of the world, so as to give the world something to stand against and be evaluated. It cannot see the dirt without the clean, the ugly without the pretty. If we do not dig in, to stand out, the world will not see any need for being groomed into something cleaner than what it currently is.
I’m not talking about “works” here. I cannot clean my feet without the help of some cleaning ingredient; in this case, a baby wipe (or four). And I’m not talking about comparing ourselves with others. Once we’re all open to being groomed, it doesn’t matter who we are, what we look like, where we’re “at” (in our journey with Father) or what we’ve done…we’ll be groomed, we’ll be cleaned by the ultimate cleaning ingredient: the blood of Jesus.
[p.s. ironically enough, the same night I wrote these words, my feet were washed by the Nica youth leaders at the sister ministry that Team Prisma’s been working with this month. It was their way of saying “thank you” to us for what we’ve done in Jinotepe this month and what we’re headed out to do in the rest of the world. Haha, ather has a sense of humor!
…and I…well, my nerves were reeling with each touch. But, my heart was so humbled. The people we came to help were washing my feet?! …*sigh* no words. No words.]
