Feet washing

This month has been so full.

Staying with my daughter to help with her 6 children while she had to undergo iodine/radiation and be isolated, was a labor of love. It was a special part of my life I will treasure. It was exhausting at times. Made me realize why most young families have younger parents than me.

I admit...be the end of the second week I was a little bit less patient, to say the least. I knew this when, "I am at the end of my last nerve!" came out of my mouth. Lack of very much sleep (1 little one slept with me on the couch all but maybe 1 day), running after a 'get into EVERYTHING' 1 yr. old, fighting 4 and 7 yr. old, meals, housekeeping, not to mention the mountains of laundry a family of 6 children produce. How did I do that when I was raising my children. I know I had 2 less kids, but then I didn't have help with mine the way I did with my daughter's older children.  I would not have changed a thing.

I had very little time to rest when I got home, as my orientation into my new career began 4 days later. Not counting 600 miles driving by myself to get home.

Friday I finally had my first hands on training then turned loose on my own 2 hours later. It was a very full day. 4 clients, 90 miles of traveling. I came home exhausted but happy.

One particular thing happened that changed my ideas forever.

My last client asked me to wash her feet. It made me think of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Some churches practice the Biblical custom of feet washing along with taking communion. I have participated in this activity before. But let me tell you, it is no where close to the same thing.  For one when you do this in church you are basically washing clean well groomed feet. Who comes to church dirty with stinky feet? Granted I know that in some places this does happen but I will bet they don't do much foot washing there. We have washed our children's dirty stinky feet, but we love them and don't think anything of it.

This quiet, shy, lady was morbidly obese. Because of her health condition she had rolls on her legs that sagged below her ankles. She could not even pick her feet up very high because of the weight of them. She had to lay down on her bed so I could see the bottom of her feet.  Shamefully I admit, at one time this would have really grossed me out. But as I witnessed her submission to my task, I felt a humbling connection with this woman. She just wants what everyone else wants. To be cared for and loved. I felt that love and almost started to cry. Is this how Jesus felt? I don't know but he takes our morbidly obese sin and gently washes it away when we submit to Him. I will never look at feet washing the same way again.

Going Home

On my travel back to Indiana I was thinking of the old adage that "you can never go home."
 I always wondered why someone would think that.
 It must be because they have the expectation of everything staying just the way it was when they left it.
We always want to feel that feeling of security that we felt when we were growing up.
That we would always be cared for, loved, cherished, important.
That we didn't have to worry about the unknown because "Daddy" would take care of that and there really wasn't any unknown.
But that doesn't seem to be the case if we just look at the surface.
Life is full of the unknown.
We don't even know in the next minute was is going to happen.
But look closer...
We have a "Daddy" that takes care of the unknown if we let Him.
We can still feel cared for, loved, cherished, important...because we are...to our Heavenly Daddy.
We don't need to worry about "never going home again" because we really haven't been there yet.
This isn't really our home.
Our family is our home no matter where they are.
Not just our biological family, but our family in Christ.
If they are our brothers and sisters shouldn't they feel like home too?