This weekend while I was on duty with Emerald, she and Jack assisted me with some yard work. I can’t say who was the greatest helper, but both added a special something.

Jack stood guard (er… sat guard) and Emerald provided the sound track, giggling and squealing over her discoveries: shriveled leaves, broken twigs, acorns, garden rocks. We didn’t accomplish a whole lot but did enjoy a satisfying hour together.

I couldn’t help but notice the baby’s beautiful skin against the rough ground and especially her sweet little feet, so soft and (so far) of very little use. But what struck me most on our gardening day was that her feet got dirty for the very first time.

Sitting in the ivy, swiveling this way and that, her feet repeatedly rubbed against the soil, getting filthy. Her toenails had never had dirt under them before, and both Birgitta and I have loved kissing those clean feet to get her giggling. After our yard work, her feet looked like the rest of ours, and it wasn’t a good look for her.

I looked at my own feet, knowing they don’t look really clean even after they’ve been washed. And then I thought of Jesus, who washed the dirty feet of his 12 main men, despite most of them being old, worn out feet, probably gnarly, stained, and ugly.

The reason he did it was twofold: (1) to demonstrate the importance of humility, hoping the men would one day follow his example with others; and (2) to let them know that humbling themselves would bring blessing back to them.

It wasn’t easy for Jesus to do what he did with the disciples’ feet that night, especially with his thoughts so focused on the excruciating hours of torture immediately ahead. But this last lesson from Master to students was important enough that not even the closeness of the crucifixion could dissuade him, which is why it’s such an important lesson for the rest of us, too.

As I sat Emerald on the edge of the kitchen sink to wash her feet, God gave me a sweet thought: “Emerald could be literally painted in mud, and you wouldn’t love her any less, would you?”

Jesus washed 24 big, smelly feet (including those of his betrayer) with a humility that verified a love so great, it can’t be explained. Though I’ll never be able to love to that depth, I can stand in awe of his great love, and think about that night when the Master put himself beneath his servants to make an incredibly important point: to humble oneself is to show love.

Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:16-17)

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us.” (1 John 4:10)