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“Mind Your Feet”
Pastor David K.
Groth
Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church
“How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings,” says Isaiah (52:70.
Have you ever wondered why Isaiah singled out the
feet? Why not the prophet’s lips which
proclaim the good tidings, or his eyes as he proclaims them, or even the
good tidings themselves? No. Isaiah says the herald’s feet are
beautiful.
In Isaiah’s day, news, bad or good, was always
brought by a person, not a newspaper or CNN. So if a messenger was to
announce a message, his feet would have to take him That is, if he had a message worth
sharing, it would have implications for his feet. We would say he would have to “put his
money where his mouth was.”
In the same spirit, perhaps we should pay
attention to where our feet take us.
We can say that God is important in our lives, but do our feet support
that confession? Do our feet carry us
often and gladly into God’s house? We can say what we want about doing good
things for the poor and needy, but do our feet go where they are? We can talk about how good it is to take
care of our elderly parents and uncles and aunts, how important our
children are to us, but how much time, really, are our feet in the presence
of these people we love? If you
really want to know who you are, (as opposed to the person you think you
are), keep an eye on where your feet are.
If you’re like me, you’ll notice a disparity
between the two. If you’re like me,
your mouth may say one thing, but the silent confession of your feet says
quite another.
It’s a good thing there are scars on the feet of
Jesus. He talked the talk and walked
the walk. And so when he rose from
the dead, “They took hold of his feet and worshiped him” (Matthew
28:9). How beautiful, indeed, are
the feet of him who brings good tidings!
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