This is the way to wash our feet, wash our feet, wash our feet...

"Peter said to Him, 

'Lord, are You washing my feet?' "

John 13:6

Aaahhh.... summer....  Summer means iced tea and lemonade... it means plenty of swimming and staying up late... and it means flip-flops and bare feet.

I really don't like going around in bare feet.  I try to have a pair of flip-flops, even for doing stuff around the house, but I seem to just hop up from my chair, and forget they're there.   And then later on, sometimes at night, I'll hop in the shower to clean off and cool down.  I take one step onto the wet floor of the shower, and I can't believe the dirty footprints I'm leaving on the shower floor.  Of course, a minute later the water rinses them away, but I still find myself surprised at how dirty my feet have gotten over the course of the day.

So this morning in the shower, I found myself thinking of the times that the Bible talks about washing feet. I could only think of two instances:  Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, and Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus.  But when I looked it up, I found over 20 mentions of foot-washing.  And there are interesting points to be from some of those references.   Some of the verses are about rest and hospitality, about serving others.  Some are about preparation, such as for service in the temple.  Some are about honoring others, showing humility.

The most famous incident ~ Jesus washing the feet of the disciples ~ speaks to all those.   It was probably something that didn't strike the disciples as odd, since foot-washing was so necessary in those days and in that place.  But we do know they were uncomfortable with their Lord and Savior doing the washing.  Of course, He had a point to make there, about serving others.   "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." (John 13:15)

But He also knew that God was about to do something.  In their lives and in the world and in the universe and for all time.  It reminds me of the passage in Joshua, on the night before they crossed over the Jordan, when Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

But you know what I was thinking about in the shower today?  That if it weren't for those dirty footprints I was leaving ~ if it weren't for the fact that my feet were being cleaned ~ I wouldn't have any idea how dirty they were.  Think about it:  your feet are all the way down there, and you have to do something acrobatic to see the bottoms of them.  Unless you're sitting.  But that's cheating.

I think of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, and how only He knew how dirty those feet were.  Sitting that close, touching them, washing and drying them.  He knew intimately their need to be cleaned.

And He knows us that well, too.  Because we know it's not just our feet that need to be cleansed.  But we have no idea the great extent to which we need Him.  We need to ask Him to cleanse us, and trust Him to take care of areas we have been neglecting:  attitude, laziness, ungratefulness, distrustfulness...

And when we have been washed, when we have been sanctified, then we will be prepared for what God is about to do.

~ "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" ~

John 13:9