Dirty Feet

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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.

Yard work helpersJack 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.

Dirty feet.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.

SNM128510It 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)

The Tough Truth

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Tiger golfsSome babies are born into sporty families and begin their careers with pint-sized golf clubs, tennis rackets, or baseball bats. Others arrive to parents who love horses, and their children are taught to ride before they can sit up. Still others come into musical homes and learn to read music before reading words, developing into prodigies.

Babies born into our family have it easy. All they have to do is love the beach.

Later this week Emerald will turn 9 months, and in her short life she’s already become a water baby. She never gets enough of Lake Michigan and today had us all spellbound with her antics.

Water baby.

While she was sitting in our beach creek, her mommy slowly poured a bucket of water out in front of her from 2 feet in the air. At first Emerald did what most babies do, grabbing at the stream. Then suddenly she surprised us all by leaning forward and going full-face into the water, soaking her eyes and nose, and filling her mouth.

She did it again and again, after which she would pull back and laugh with gusto. Birgitta poured bucket after bucket in front of her, and she never stopped ducking into the water and laughing afterwards. Getting dunked was her her passion of the moment.

Maybe it’s possible to develop spiritual passions in our children the same way families develop passions for sports, horses, music, or water, by starting young.

My parents began spiritual training with my sister, brother and I early in our lives, just as Nate and I did with our children: Sunday school from infancy, youth groups, summer camp, service projects, and mission trips. Most importantly, we tried to practice what we preached at home. But that last one, living out an example of Christ-like-ness, is the toughest.

Some youngsters, when taught something from the get-go, develop a natural proclivity for it and get good at it because it comes naturally. But righteous living? That doesn’t come naturally to any of us.

Billy Graham

I think of Billy Graham, one of the most prominent preachers of all time. His life has been scrutinized from every angle  without finding any skeletons in his closets, and most of us would call him a “righteous person.” Yet he told an interviewer he struggles daily with the temptation to sin, resisting only with God’s supernatural help.

Those of us who think we have a passion to follow God will never succeed at it unless we enlist his ongoing partnership. We can start early with our training, practice like Olympic athletes, and insist our passion will carry us, but all of us are (as one God-fearing missionary put it) “…only two steps away from disaster.”

Good thing God understands that. Although he appreciates our efforts toward righteousness (and expects us to try), he lets us off the hook on perfection. And we can be forever grateful for his reason:

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

Are you sure?

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I’m a sucker for optical illusions. From time to time we all fall for a trick that enters our brains through our eyes and fools us into thinking something is, that isn’t.

Daredevil over Niagara Falls

For example, we can watch a movie of someone tight-roping across Niagara Falls and get all knotted up inside watching him take that  tremendous risk. Later we might learn it was just special effects and that the actor was actually walking on a tight rope only 3” off the floor during filming.

Ponzo illusion

Or, we might stare at a drawing for a long time trying to decide if parallel lines are the same length or if our eyes are fooling us. In reality, we’re fooling ourselves. We look at the lines and are sure they’re different lengths. Logic tells us that something farther away should be smaller, so the line located farther down the track must be longer. Actually, they’re the same length.

IMG_4168

I witnessed another illusion through my iPhone just this morning. Although I’m 4000 miles from Hans and his family of 6, they graciously send frequent pictures and videos to keep me current. Baby Andrew, only 7 weeks old, has begun to smile now, and today I received a picture that made him appear much older and bigger than his calendar age suggests.

I was taken aback when I opened the text, seeing how much he’d grown and changed since birth, and I haven’t even met him yet! Later, though, I saw other pictures of him on Facebook that included his bigger siblings and saw how really little Andrew still is, a reassuring discovery. His iPhone photo had just been taken at close range.

Magic

Life serves up illusions of all kinds. We’ve watched magic shows in which it seems the magician can perform real miracles! Our brains believe what our eyes see, but of course each of his tricks is just a ruse. When we’re told the how-to behind his “miracles”, we can’t believe we were so easily duped.

The absolute greatest of life’s illusions, though, can do some real damage. The magician behind them is an expert who delights in twisting truth into lies.

Let’s say we’re working hard to live righteously before God, but an opportunity comes along to fudge on something…. just a little. It would bring significant benefit to us, and so we seriously consider it. Eventually we decide to veer from a biblical standard and believe an illusion that seems trustworthy at the time.

There is, indeed, an immediate benefit, but it turns out to be short-lived. The lasting reality is that we’ve hurt ourselves and those we love by trusting in an illusion from the ultimate in deceivers, Satan. Every single time we’re tempted to do something shady, he is liar behind it.

So, the next time we’re marveling over an illusion, we’d better investigate its source. We just might save ourselves from a devastating encounter with the master-illusionist.

“The snake deceived Eve with his devious tricks,  ….the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.” (2 Corinthians 11:3 & Revelation 12:9)