"And they said to one another,"Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"" Luke 24:32

Those Holy Feet

            Recently, we drove up to Michigan to spend some holiday time with one of our daughters and her sweet family. When we set out in the early morning dark it was snowing heavily and the rural roads near our house were slick and treacherous.  We saw numerous slide-offs, pickup trucks and cars, some with dazed drivers still inside waiting for a tow. I suggested turning back since surely, the further north we went, the worse the weather and road conditions would become, but my husband just kept driving, slowly and carefully. I scanned through radio stations searching for a forecast or road condition report. Jazz, oldies, a Newsboys’ song, a guy speaking Spanish, a bazillion commercials being fired off by announcers who sounded like they’d had too much caffeine, even a polka which made us laugh, but no weather forecast! By the time we got to the interstate in the next county, the roads were better, the pavement drier, and the vehicles were on the road instead of in the ditch.  Trusting that it was the right thing to do to make this trip, my husband kept driving, and strangely enough, the further north we went the better the weather and roads.  It wasn’t what we expected and it didn’t make geographical sense, but we were grateful.  Very grateful.

            As Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, “sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word” (Luke 11:39b), she had no way of knowing what “roads” and “weather” lay ahead of her. She couldn’t know that she would soon fall at those same feet in grief about her brother’s death (John 11:32), or that her grief would be turned into joy at his miraculous resurrection (John 11:44). But two things Mary did know, she knew Who to trust, “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died” (John 11:32), and she knew how to be grateful.

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.  John 12:3

            As we journey into this New Year, our personal weather conditions may be stormy and uncertain.  Everything may look hazardous and we may be experiencing fear and doubt.  Or perhaps conditions in this season of our lives are sunny and mild and we’re expecting them to continue so. Whichever the case may be, we cannot know what the road up ahead, our April, or July, or September road, will look like.  But one thing is certain, we can know Who to trust and we can choose to be grateful.  We can all choose to be like Mary, who, no matter what condition surrounded her--peace, grief, joy--spent her life at Jesus’ feet. After all, He, trusting the Father and knowing what lay ahead on His road, chose, with those holy feet, to walk it anyway. Up the hill to Golgotha, for you, and for me. May the fragrance of our gratefulness fill this New Year.

Daye Phillippo

January 2012