THE WONDER OF OUR FEET

Photo: News Discovery.com

HOW ABOUT YOUR FEET?

By Ada Brownell

When I was a kid I heard about stinky feet, toe jam, big feet, ugly feet, dirty feet. I never heard much good about feet.

After I got a little older I told people, “If my face looked as good as my feet I’d be in great shape.” Then with walking for my health, a corn showed up. Plantar warts. Another corn. Callouses. The makings of a bunion.

How can I complain? At least I have feet. When I was about 12, I disobeyed Daddy and went ice skating next to the mighty Colorado River. We skated on a pond of backed up water next to the river. My house was farther away from the river than their’s. Besides, my shoe skates were getting too little and they cut off the circulation.

On the way home, my feet felt like bricks. No feeling. Temperatures probably were below zero because we had to have zero temperatures before ice was thick enough to skate on.

When I walked into the house, I headed for the bathroom, stuck my feet in the sink and turned on hot water. My feet turned black and began to swell.

There was no way I could hide what happened. I couldn’t wear my shoes and had to borrow an older sister’s and wear them for days until the swelling went down.

The only time I saw a doctor before I got married was when I had the croup and he came to the house. My parents, refugees from the Great Depression and the Kansas Dust Bowl, didn’t have a penny to pay for any extras. I had few clothes and wore my brother’s hand-me-downs because my four sisters were too big. If our parents hadn’t grown a big garden and raised pigs and chickens we wouldn’t have had anything to eat.

But about the time I was born, the last of eight children, our family one-by-one committed their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew how to pray. My feet soon became normal. I’ve wondered if I had been taken to a doctor if he’d have wanted to amputate.

Our feet are beautiful examples of God’s complex design.  According to WebMD the feet are flexible structures of bones, joints, muscles, and soft tissues that let us stand upright and perform activities like walking, running, and jumping. The feet are divided into three sections:

• The forefoot contains the five toes and the five longer bones.
• The midfoot is a pyramid-like collection of bones that form the arches of the feet..
• The hindfoot forms the heel and ankle. The talus bone supports the leg bones (tibia and fibula), forming the ankle. The heel bone is the largest bone in the foot.

Muscles, tendons, and ligaments run along the surfaces of the feet, allowing the complex movements needed for motion and balance. The Achilles tendon connects the heel to the calf muscle and is essential for running, jumping, and standing on the toes.

The active agents in the mechanism of the foot are the muscles, and the passive the bones, ligaments, joints, etc. The bones are levers, and muscles the power.

 “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” we’re told in Hebrews 10:15 and Isaiah 52:7. Isaiah added, “...who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says in Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Where have my feet been? I pray I’ve left good tracks in the neighborhood when we  moved. I pray my children see good tracks left by my feet in their lives. I pray I left good tracks everywhere I worked, in every Sunday school where I taught, on people I meet and those who read my writing.

May there be a scent of God’s sweet anointing on my feet.

©Copyright Ada Brownell