The Full Extent of Love

My daughter has been a little manic over wearing shoes lately. As soon as she wakes up she puts on a pair... even before bed she picks out a pair to wear until right before we tuck her in. She is shoe crazy! It's cute to see her prance around in a different pair every hour through the day. We laugh watching her go from ballerina to cowgirl to school girl with her rain boots on. It was real sweet... until the stinch began. Playing together in the evening, Ken always sniffs the kid's feet to kiddingly say “shew wee”, but this time it wasn't a joke. They really did stink! My husband and I started noticing a pattern of her feet being a bit stinkier than usual. Then, it hit me... she is prancing around the house all day in shoes and not wearing socks! New rule: Must wear socks with shoes. This hasn't slowed down her shoe shuffle a bit. She just knows now to put some socks on first.

So I was thinking today while the kids were napping about love... it is Valentine's Day after all! We've had fun this week making sweet treats and homemade Valentines for our loved ones but I have especially had fun talking about who love is. God is love (1 John 4:8). Love is not simply an attribute of God's character... it IS God. And I love sharing that with my little ones. I started thinking about the ways God shows His love and the first story that came to mind was the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet before the Passover Feast (John 13). I remembered that the Bible says this is how Jesus showed them the "full extent of his love". I love how he is intentional in all he does... nothing lacks in purpose. It's a beautiful picture of how Christ has washed us of all our sin through the finished work of the cross! It also demonstrates Christ's humility as a servant even to the point of death, death on a cross. It is an example he was setting for us...

“You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.... no servant is greater than his master.” John 13: 14,16a

Think about washing someone's feet... not the cute, sweet, little feet of your babies. Even though my daughter's feet were every bit of stinky, it was effortless and without second thought that I washed them and, truthfully, I'd probably even kiss them! Think instead of grown men's feet, dusty and dirty. Peter protested, “You shall never wash my feet (vs. 8).”  Seeing his Master behave like a slave must have confused Peter. But I love the answer Jesus gives, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  What a heavy statement. Unless we are washed by the blood of Christ we can have no part, no fellowship with Him.  Jesus was the ultimate servant.  So much of our society tells us to be proud, to build up yourself, make life about you and what you want, what you deserve, after all we've worked so hard it is owed to us, right? It was even the “Word on the Street” on Sesame Street one morning... I turned that off quick. Pride is destructive.

Proverbs 16:18 says, “First pride, then the crash- the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.”

As believers, we should only boast in Christ and what he has done for us (Galatians 6:14). Jesus, himself, was the very opposite of prideful. He was humble. He put aside himself and out of love served.  My Bible went further in depth to explain it this way, “If even he, God in the flesh, is willing to serve, we his followers must also be servants, willing to serve in any way that glorifies God.” 

We can show God's love through serving others. The story is not just about washing someone's feet, it is about placing others above yourself, laying down pride, loving sacrifically. Whether it is inside my home (where it begins) or outside of my home, I am called as a believer to serve others. Love, himself, served.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his corss and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?'” Matthew 16:24-26