Yesterday at Church our Pastor shared some images his wife had shared with him. On a slide show the images showed Jesus kneeling at the feet of different people to wash their feet just as he had done with the Disciples at their Passover meal before Jesus’ crucifixion.

Each slide showed Jesus kneeling in the same position with a small basin of water but each person was different…a young mother holding her infant with a blue/yellow flag across her knees; a teenager with a skateboard across his knees, his tennis shoe to the side; a toddler standing in the basin and holding onto Jesus as he washed his tiny feet; a woman with a sign reading Vaccines Save Lives; a woman with a sign reading No Vaccines; a nurse exhausted and unable to lift her head off her hand; a policeman doubled over in the chair in despair; a young man with a rainbow colored flag across his knees; a soldier from Russia.

Images are compelling and go straight to our hearts. An image from the news of the war in Ukraine showing a very pregnant woman on a stretcher being removed from the bombed maternity/children’s hospital in Ukraine…she and the baby died.

When we see events in the world that are frightening and that we have no control over it’s easy to see those events looming up and filling our eyes and then God is crowded out and seems distant and uncaring. When we turn to God, however, and pray for His understanding we begin to see the world not through the eyes of fear but of faith….not through what our eyes see but through His eyes. He doesn’t see as we see. We see pain and in fear we want retribution; He sees people in need of His mercy and salvation.

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. Jeremiah 24:7

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have Jesus wash your feet? Seeing those images of Jesus washing the feet of ordinary people just like us got me to thinking. Would we deign to kneel down and wash the feet of someone who is different from us? Would we be too shocked to allow Jesus to kneel down and wash our feet? What else are we not allowing?

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. Luke 13:12 Do we understand that kind of love? All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. Psalm 25:10

Jesus told us the greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love is a heart thing. What I am learning and it’s taking ever so long is to keep my eyes on God and His promises. I see the world and the sorrows and weariness. I feel that pain acutely. By turning to Him, though, I can keep Him close and me walking beside Him learning lessons for eternity. There is peace in that walk that nothing in this world can provide. Turn to Him when the trials of this life overwhelm. He’s there. Turn to Him when you receive blessings thanking Him and rejoicing in His heart and His love. He is there.