God's Word

“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD.”  Jeremiah 31.38

“Then Jesus poured water in to a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them.”  John 13.5

We each process life through our own unique set of lenses.

·      Musicians, they tune into melodies & rhythms & lyrics.

·      Engineers puzzle over taking things apart and putting them back together.

·      Numbers people are constantly adding things up and comparing the sums.

Pastors?  First thing each morning a big chunk of us dutifully crack open God’s Word and use the message we’re given as our day’s compass point.  After all, scripture itself says this:  “the Word of God is living and active…”  (Hebrews 4.12)  Good enough for me.  How, I wondered, would the above verses be speaking into and guiding my heart on this day?

This morning our van groaned up the steep hillsides of Port-Au-Prince where we spent a good chunk of the day with Sister Alta and the Sisters of the Companions of Jesus, Sacred Heart Home for the Elderly.  Our mission here was simple & straightforward:  treat these 25 or so ladies to a fun, memorable spa day.  Armed with nail polish, lotions, towels, and basins filled with clean cool water, we were ready to make some smiles. 

Grabbing a basin, soap & towel, and kneeling before one of the residents, using my best Creole asked permission to wash her feet.  Smiling, she gently slid her foot out of the sandal and into my hands…just as the words to this worship song came over the speaker on our playlist: 

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God!
You’re altogether lovely,
altogether worthy,
altogether wonderful to me!

Hunched over the dry, cracking feet of the wrinkled woman in the wheelchair, I quickly realized it wasn’t a word from Jeremiah or John that would be speaking to my heart on this day.  Rather, it was a third passage, one from the physician Luke that would help me understand and see more clearly, the healing encounter I was doing my best to absorb through my now blurry, tear-filled eyes. 

“A woman of the city, a sinner…standing behind Jesus at his feet, weeping, began to set his feet with her tears…”  Luke 7.38