Over the years, we've enjoyed a variety of special ways to celebrate the Easter season.
However, nothing we do has the level of meaning and depth as our family tradition of washing each other's feet on the Thursday evening leading to Easter Sunday.
When we read the account of the final days of Jesus' earthly life, we find him with his disciples sharing a passover meal and preparing them for the life-changing events that are only hours away. As he spends what only he knows are his last moments with them, he does something that will strike them in such a way that they will never forget the moment and it's significance.
Their teacher, their leader, their friend...he washes their feet. Their worn, dirty, calloused, stinking, cracked, dried out, feet. This man they esteem, love, admire, worship...he washes their feet.
As an act of love and an example of humility, he reaches out to them in an act that only the lowest of servants would do. He is showing them how to love each other.
He just stepped up the bar of discipleship with these men.
As parents, David and I recognize that our first and primary job is to disciple our children, looking to our savior, Jesus Christ, as our model. Because of this, we choose to use his example as a teaching point in our family each year. We strive to show our children the value and blessing of serving one another.
We've taken turns over the years, having a different person wash the feet of everyone else in the family. This year, David stepped in with a fervent desire to lead with the humility we've all come to love in our faithful family leader.
I can't begin to explain what it does to my heart to see our children's eyes as they watch their daddy kneeling before them, gently washing them. When I see my sons, in the midst of embarrassed giggles over the stink-factor of their own feet, look upon their father doing what no one would naturally choose to do, I know it creates a memory they will hold forever, an image I pray they will recreate in their own homes again and again.
The times we spend together in family worship will be what fills my mind when I am old and gray, rocking and dreaming of years gone by. There are so many things that fill a day, but these times of being with the people I treaure most, watching us grow, learn, and explore God's powerful word together, these moments bind together to give me the strength I crave.
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?...But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9, 11
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