Footwashing

So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. John 13:12-15

Our community offers a monthly support group for parents who have a child or children with autism. The location of the group's meetings follows a rotation among several local churches. Each church that hosts has also agreed to provide childcare for the kids with autism as well as for their siblings. Needless to say it is a large group of active little (and big) ones.

Last month was our church's turn to host. A group of ten men, who serve in leadership roles within our church body, volunteered to watch the children while the parents enjoyed an evening of fellowship, support, and encouragement. These men, who chose to lead by serving, are successful businessmen, doctors, professors... by the world's standards they are all highly respected. Certainly they have the resources to pay for sitters or recruit volunteers, yet they, themselves, chose to serve.

To witness them devoting an evening to playing pretend, coloring, pushing children on swings, and accommodating special needs was, as my friend Abby described, "a real footwashing moment." In humbling themselves to serve these men honored those who are likely rarely served or honored... the loving, committed and tired parents who are their children's champions, and the kids, whom I fear are often overlooked in our society.

Matthew 20:26-28 tells us that if we want to be great then first we must learn to be a servant, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

I am challenged by the example put forth by my Savior and by these Godly men to more purposefully look for ways to serve others. To humble myself, to be willing to wash the feet of those whom the world has labeled as lowly. That is, afterall, what Jesus did; He honored and served those who were least acknowledged.

I pray that I will be observant and obedient, that I can somehow demonstrate the love of Jesus, who humbled himself to death on a cross, to a watching world. That daily, with humility and tenderness I, in the words of Michael Card, "can take up the basin and the towel."