Giving Thanks for Beautiful Feet

The only feet I have ever admired are those that belong to babies or very young children. For the most part, I think adult feet are ugly. They have a right to be. Most of us, especially women, abuse them with shoes that don’t fit correctly or have inadequate arch support. Many years ago, my husband worked in a shoe store and he says it always amazed him when some women would shove their feet into shoes that were obviously too small. Not me. You won’t catch me in uncomfortable shoes. If my feet aren’t happy nothing on my body is happy!

Once, my mother bought me a pair of shoes to wear to a cousin’s wedding. For some reason I don’t remember now, I didn’t try them on until the day of the wedding. They had been died to match my dress and were a beautiful purple color, but they were too small and so painful that now 25 years later the only thing I can remember about the day my cousin said, “I do!” was how much my feet hurt.

In my grandmother’s day (The Great Depression) folks were lucky if they had one pair of shoes and children went barefooted all summer. Now days feet have their own wardrobe for different events.

While I am not crazy about the way my feet look (and no a pedicure won’t help) I am very thankful I have them. They take me places, allow me to go for walks down my drive way and do a pretty good job of  carrying the rest of me around.

Last week, I was reading my Bible and I came upon a verse that I didn’t remember. Paul quotes the Old Testament when he says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Romans 10:15 NLT). Wow!

I slipped my shoes off and looked at my feet. They definitely didn’t look beautiful to me, but if God thinks they are beautiful … I know they are.

When my brother was a little boy my mother looked at his hands one day and told him he had beautiful hands. “No they’re not,” he argued. “Oh yes they are,” she replied gently. “The things they can do are beautiful.” And that’s the way it is with feet. No matter what they look like, when they help us carry the message that Jesus Christ came to this earth and died for our sins, that He arose victorious from the grave, and that He’s coming back for us one day, then our feet our beautiful indeed.