Beautiful Feet

 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns! (Isaiah 52:7)

How were those feet beautiful?

Do you realize that they most likely did not have shoes?

They were dusty and dirty and hard and cracked. They were scratched and blistered. They had some toe nails missing. They were probably bleeding from one point or the other from knocking a rock or boulder too hard. They have encountered a serpent or scorpion and survived it. They have adequate evidence of thorns and thistles tearing them. They probably had an encounter with a jigger or two.

In short, those feet have seen it all.

And therein is their beauty. It is not the beauty of the catwalk. It is not a fashion display beauty. It is not a parade beauty.

It is a functional beauty. To borrow from a worn thread, it can be like a comparison between a slay queen and good wife.

These feet are beautiful yet it is not a beauty for display.

For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)

What they do is where their beauty originates from.

They are up and down taking the Gospel where it is needed

Bystanders will not appreciate that beauty. In fact they call it ugly, despicable. Not many of you (if any) will willingly welcome them to your carpeted and sparkling clean house. Not many of you will give them lodging in your feathered bed because you may have to discard those beddings when they leave.

Yet you will realize that this is what taking the Gospel to the nations entails. In fact it is what real ministry is like.

The trophies we carry are not for display. They are many times what the world looks as shameful, like Paul enumerated in 2 Corinthians 11.

Beautiful feet are not those expensive autos or exclusive dwellings. They are not found in those holidays and conferences in big cities.

They will still be dusty and dirty and cracked and wounded.

That is the beauty God sees. That is the beauty God admires. That is the beauty God rewards.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet. And the conveniences of our day are not found on the mountains.

Mountains are places of exertion, energy, exhaustion.

Are your feet beautiful in God’s eyes?