By Rita Klundt

If you were looking for a “pedicure” when you stumbled onto this blog…well, you might have found it.

It’s finally sandal season. For those of us who make it through our winters and live for spring, it’s time to close the sock drawer and put away those furry boots. Yeah!

The problem (and there is always a problem): My feet have been hidden and ignored while this year’s winter has trespassed deep into my spring. May is only a week away, and I’ve yet to make that early March pedicure appointment.

I’m not usually one who pays much attention to feet, but it’s obvious, after one trip to Walmart, that I’m not the only one with scraggly toenails and rough heels. Lots of us are anxious to slip into a pair of sandals and get this summer started!

My feet say more about me than I care to share. They give away my age. They expose my need and my priorities. My doctor looks at feet for clues to my state of wellness. I should look at my feet more often than I do. It shouldn’t take a trip to Walmart and glaring examples of neglected and abused feet for me to realize how much I need a pedicure.

My feet, much more than the graying hair on my head, deserve a regular appointment—maybe not at an expensive salon, but if I want to look good, feel good, and live well, my feet need more attention.

Even the Bible speaks to the importance of our feet. In Genesis, Abraham begs three angels to rest with him and offers water to wash their feet. In Deuteronomy, The Lord reminds Israel of how He provided for their feet. Forty years of wandering in the desert, and not one shoe needed replacement. I expect there were hand-me-downs, but forty years without going into a shoe store! Yep, that really happened, and not for just one person, but for a huge tribe of people.

David thanks God for feet that did not cause him to slip and fall (2 Samuel). He encourages and instructs, using feet for memorable imagery and metaphor, in the Psalms. Solomon warns us, in the Proverbs, about feet that tend to run toward evil.

In the Gospels, we can read about people sitting at Jesus’ feet, worshiping at His feet, and washing His feet with tears. And then we learn how to serve and how to love when we read about Jesus washing the feet of the twelve disciples.

John likens Jesus’ feet to “fine brass” in the book of Revelation. He says a lot about Jesus and His feet with those two short words. I don’t understand all there is to know about Heaven, but “fine brass” tells me that when I see Jesus, face to face, even His feet will be beautiful and amazing.

A verse of scripture came to my mind on the way home from Walmart: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” Romans 10:15b (NKJV)

I realized my need for more than a salon appointment. I won’t be satisfied with polished toes and softened heels. It’s not enough for my winterized feet to look good in sandals or meet the approval of other women. I want a better kind of beautiful for my feet!

So, the salon where I go is closed on Mondays, but my feet can still get beautiful today. I’ve got plans to go out and about. I’m praying that God will walk me into what my pastor talked about yesterday—a gospel conversation. As surely as He walked in the desert with the Israelites for forty years, and didn’t allow their shoes to wear thin, He will be with me.

I love the way Romans 10: 14-15 is translated into contemporary language:
“But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,
A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
telling all the good things of God!” (The Message: NavPress)

Hope to see you out and about real soon. I may, or may not be wearing sandals.