Are My Feet Beautiful?

 

Party hats and nativity cakes, silly games and simple crafts all marked our special day. The event was a highlight of the preschool years and a consistent memory maker during the elementary school years. However, the celebration fell short as my party hosts  moved into intermediate school. While we still loved the idea of gathering peers to celebrate Jesus’ BIG DAY, we searched for new ways to spread the good news. We tried telling the nativity story at a bowling party for tween-age boys and then hosted a pajama party for giddy girls complete with the creation of nativity scene pillow cases. The earnest attempts were fun, but none rivaled the happy horn-blowing, balloon-popping days of our original Jesus parties. Until this year.

 

On the first day of Christmas break, Hannah and Lizzy hosted a “Beautiful Feet Party.”  Built around Isaiah’s prophesy, “How beautiful… are the feet of those who bring good news” (Isaiah 52:7) and Paul’s admonition to adorn our feet  “with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace,” (Ephesians6:15), this party was a one-of-a-kind Christmas celebration sure to be repeated in years to come.

 

 

To kick off the fun, six smiling girls piled into a bathtub brimming with warm water and bath salts. Christmas carols jingled from the CD player while the girls soaked and giggled and gabbed. Next it was on to our streamer-decorated spa chairs where each party-goer received a peppermint stick and a stool for stretching out their freshly-cleaned feet.

Decisions followed… Which scented lotion for the foot massage? What color scheme fit the toes?  Glitter polish or sleek satin? How much bling and detail? Any toenail art? Foot painting? (We love body crayons from Klutz!)  Ped-tattoos?

 

Once each girl had dreamed up her own personalized foot design, the kids went to work turning their visions into ravishing reality. While Hannah and her friends sipped red bubbly spritzers, Lizzy and the other preteen pedicurists tenderly added beauty to seven-year-old feet. As the scene unfolded, I nearly wept at the beautiful picture of the gospel playing out in our humble basement. The very Savior whose birthday we were celebrating had once kneeled before twelve pairs of dingy feet and scrubbed them clean, one dirty toe at a time.  Now go and do the same. (John 13:1-15).

 

When every foot at our party had been beautified and pampered, we decorated foot-shaped cookies and talked about the “beautiful feet” in the Christmas story. We pondered the speed at which the shepherds raced from the hilltops to worship a tiny baby in an obscure stable. We wondered what they did with their sheep as they weaved through town telling their tale to any one who would listen.“How beautiful are the feet … of those who bring good news!”

 

We talked about a young girl whose feet must have ached from carrying her nearly-term-pregnant body all the way to Bethlehem. “How bea

utiful are the feet … of those who bring good news!” And we rejoiced in a baby whose tiny feet would grow and one day walk Calvary’s hill in our place. “How beautiful are the feet … of those who bring good news!”

 

Next came this question: How do we take our beautiful feet to the road? How can we turn Isaiah’s ancient prophecy into today’s reality? The answer: Fit our feet with the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). And so we did! We created tie dye socks that we could pull over our beautiful toes as a vivid reminder of slipping on the gospel  of peace and then we designed cute paper stockings for giving away. Attached to the handmade gifts were a bag of Christmas treats and this little poem:

 

So Jesus could meet us right where we are.
May you treasure His footprints beside yours.
Merry Christmas!

Now the girls’ feet were ready to be put to the test. We all piled into the mini van and headed for our destination. The beautiful-footed girls proceeded to pass out smiles, hope, and joy as their freshly-spa-ed toes tiptoed through the hallways of a local nursing home filled with God’s eldest children. When they were finished, the glow on the girls’ faces out -shined the dazzle on their feet. They had just splashed  in the deep puddles of jo

y that are left in the wake of beautiful feet in action.

The stockings that hung over our mantle have been packed into boxes, the tiny-footed Jesus removed from our nativity scene and placed carefully in bubble wrap. But two little girls dancing about my home in crazy tie dye socks keep me from hastily packing up the idea of beautified feet. Instead, as I dust shelves that look naked in the absence of greenery and untangle stubborn strands of lights, I wonder what it looks like to step into the new year with beautiful feet. I wonder what testimonies 2011 would hold if each day I slipped on the gospel of peace like I slide into my old gray slippers. I wonder who I would be by the year’s end if, like the humble shepherds in the Christmas story, I refuse to keep the good news to myself. What if in the year to come I walk so closely with my Savior that my footsteps sink into His?

I wonder. 

And I pray. . . Make me beautiful, Jesus. From head to toe, make me beautiful.

The Overflow:   “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power…. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to standyour ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”
–Ephesians6:10-15