Washing Feet

Earlier this week, Aria found a washcloth in her egg.  She didn't think it belonged in there, but soon discovered it was a essential to our daily story about Jesus. 

When Jesus washed his disciples feet, it wasn't so much about cleaning feet as it was about cleansing souls.  That lesson is a bit beyond Aria, so we stuck with the Jesus Storybook Bible's text, which I love.

"Jesus and his friends were having the Passover meal together in an upstairs room.  But Jesus' friends were arguing.  What about? They were arguing about stinky feet.  Stinky feet?  Yes, that's right.  Stinky feet.

(Aria always interjects, 'Stinky feet!  That's silly!)

"Now the thing about feet back then was that people didn't wear shoes; they only wore sandals, which might not sound unusual, except that the streets in those days were dirty--and I don't mean just dusty dirty--I mean really stinky dirty.  With all those cows and horses everywhere, you can imagine the stuff on the street that ended up on their feet!

"So, anyway, someone had to wash away the dirt, but it was a dreadful job.  Who on earth would ever dream of volunteering to do it?  Only the lowliest servant."

We went over this story in our middle school small groups a couple of weeks ago, too.  The middle schoolers were quite disgusted when they actually pictured walking the streets through poop and mud with only sandals on (or maybe not even that).  It definitely made an impact. 

The story continues as Jesus begins to wash all the disciples feet, but Peter won't let him.  Then comes my favorite part:

"Jesus knew that what people needed most was to be clean on the inside.  All the dirt on their feet was nothing compared to the sin inside their hearts."

They had disgusting animal poop on their feet, but that was nothing compared to the sin inside their hearts.  And these were the disciples! 

The text ends with the best segue to our little activity.

"One by one, Jesus washed everyone's feet.  'I am doing this because I love you,' Jesus explained.  'Do this for each other."

So, I washed Aria's feet.  She definitely enjoyed it and also wanted to stomp around in the bowl of water.  Then she asked, "Who is going to wash your feet, Mom?" 

What a great question!  She was excited to wash my feet and wanted to wash my legs, too.

As I said before, the whole making yourself the lowest servant and cleansing the soul is a little too deep yet for her.  But she will tell you that Jesus washed his disciples' feet and that we are supposed to wash each other's feet.

It is all about the hooks we place in her brain now for her to grasp onto as she gains more capacity to understand.