Last week we looked at what Jesus called a beautiful thing (Matthew 26:10). This week I was struck by what God considers beautiful feet according to Romans 10:15. And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

I can still remember my first serious discussion about the qualities of beautifulfeet with my friend Brenda when we were teenagers. One day while lying by thepool one of us brought up whose feet were the ugliest—in typical adolescentfashion each wanted to claim her own as the most hideous of all. Brenda’swere smaller, but her toes were square shaped, kind of like Fred Flintstone toeswe decided. My feet were bigger—thus less attractive, but the toes decreasedin size proportionately and the shape was less square, so I guess I had to concedethat my feet were more beautiful. That didn’t equate with more dates thanher, but it was a small victory.

I really don’t like feet very much. Anyone who is close to me knows thatI can be a little melodramatic when someone’s foot surface or toes touchany part of my body. Unfortunately, this secret knowledge only seems to bringideas to some members of my family. Once I received Brenda’s declarationthat I had beautiful feet, I think it went to my head and I found myself judgingother people’s feet. I have to admit that in the early years of our marriage,I didn’t find my husband’s feet attractive, although I thoroughlyloved the rest of him. All that changed one day when we were taking part in aget-to-know-you exercise at a marriage retreat. All the men took off their shoesand hid behind a sheet in a long line-up. The wives were told to recognize theirhusband by his feet. Whew, I had no idea how many ugly feet there were in theworld until that day. I found Brian’s feet right away and now considerthem to be far above average.

On the day I read from Romans 10, my feet were fresh on my mind. I had indeedfallen far from the foot goddess of the past. My feet were a complete mess. Ihad been out of town at a conference and I didn’t bring comfortable shoesto wear in-between so I had worn high heels from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. witha little shopping trip included—my feet were hard and calloused and myankles were in pain. I give myself a pedicure at home once a month and this wasthe end of the last month’s treatment. In addition to that, I had one toenailsuper-glued on and, suffice it to say, I was no longer feeling up to par whenit came to having beautiful feet.

That was the time that God chose to remind me what beautiful feet are all about.Whatever criteria Brenda and I came up with at fifteen years old pales in comparisonto what God considers beautiful. Anyone can have beautiful feet when they havefeet that bring good news. My feet are beautiful not when I get a professionalpedicure, but when I share about my relationship with Jesus.

I hope I haven’t made you feel self-conscious about your own feet. I hopereading this helps you think about the most recent time that you shared how muchGod means to you with others and you can look down and proclaim, I have beautifulfeet.
I really do have beautiful feet because I have been bringing good news to others.I hope the same for you.