Precious Moments
My daughter is all about the kisses. It’s sort of become her signature look.
My daughter is also all about her new baby brother. He is now the favorite one of the household and he gets her kisses before anyone else. Good morning kisses, good night kisses, middle of the day kisses… she is happy to kiss him ALL. DAY. LONG.
This week our sweet girl had the flu bug… the fever and vomiting and all of it. My husband and I teamed up to do as much as we could to make her recovery as fast and comfortable as possible; homemade bone broth soup, cold wash cloths, extra vitamins and probiotics hiding in every cup of water, trips to the store for baby Motrin and jell-o, and essential oils endlessly diffusing in every room of the house. But the hardest thing to do was keep her away from her seven week old baby brother. Clinton and I have never both jumped up so fast as when we saw her darting straight for our newborn in his low level rocker. Oh how she cried when we told her she couldn’t touch his face or kiss his cheeks!
Thank you Jesus for the miraclous power of breastmilk, we didn’t have to worry about our little man catching the nasty cold (especially when lately he eats every hour!). But we did have to figure out some sort of solution for our daughter’s hysterical fits every time we took her away from brother.
So finally… we told her she was allowed to kiss his feet.
You should have seen the excitement on her face! Her eyes lit up and she pursed her lips with a big “Ooomm!” Over and over she excitedly but gently kissed the tops of his toes. She certainly compensated for her few days of sibling withdrawal, it seemed as though she would sit there forever, perfectly content to show him love with little pecks on cotton covered feet.
I sat and watched this take place with a proud momma smile on my face. Trying to absorb every ounce of this sweet moment I thought, “What a beautiful picture of love.”
“Yes, one of my favorites.” Holy Spirit chimed in.
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Luke 7:45 (TPT), “…from the moment I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.”
In all honesty, I have never fully understood why the Bible talks so much about Jesus feet.
I have studied the cultural significance of leaving sandals outside the door in those days and pondered at what it would be like to travel everywhere on foot with a constant layer of dirt on your feet. (I think about how many times I sweep the floors because I can't stand catching crumbs between my toes and laugh that the Good Lord knew which era to place me…the era of Nike’s!). I’ve studied the significance of eating meals together at low level tables and tried to imagine what it would be like biting into a cooked carrot at the same eye level as Uncle Rob’s big toes. Clean feet in those days were definitely a bigger deal!
But I knew there was a sweet message to be found in my daughter’s infatuated toe kissing so I decided to restudy what the Word had to say about all things “feet”.
Constantly in the gospels people are falling at the feet of Jesus. Even the wisemen were so overcome with Jesus that they fell down and worshipped at the feet of a toddler. (Matthew 2:11). In Jesus ministry years an entire crowd of people were healed of sicknesses and deformities by simply laying at the feet of Jesus (Matthew 15:30). And one of the most well known instances, the prostitute who demonstrated faith and celebrated forgiveness as she washed his feet with her tears, hair and very expensive oil (Luke 7:48,50).
The common theme among all these interactions with Jesus AND His feet is effort.
The wisemen traveled 800-900 miles with a procession of servants, belongings and treasury to make the journey happen and the Bible says they did so with “unrestrained joy” (Matthew 2:10).
The crowds that received healing, even the blind and the lame, had to climb a “hill” by the side of Lake Galilee to get to Jesus. Go ahead and look up Lake Galilee on google images… those pretty much look like mountains to me. Not only did they climb it but they camped out for three days “celebrating, exalting, and praising” God (Matthew 15:31).
The prostitute not only anointed Jesus with oil that cost an average years wages, but the jar she broke was also made out of costly alabaster. And let’s not forget the effort of showing up to the dinner uninvited and facing the judgement of man as a sinner and outcast to society. Her act of worship cost her her pride, but that didn’t stop her effort to enter the presence of Jesus.
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The definition of “effort” according to Oxford Dictionary:
EFFORT: noun, a vigorous or determined attempt.
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The worship, the healings, and the servitude that happened at the feet of Jesus were all so beautiful because of each person’s vigorous determination to get there. The effort to enter Jesus presence made these moments precious enough to be recorded in the eternal book of the Word.
Mommas…let me stop right here and remind you to shut that voice of condemnation down. Right now. Tell it to shut up.
Trust me, a big sigh left my mouth when I first pondered this… effort word that reminded me of my failure.
I remember when the act of sitting at Jesus feet was routine. The spiritual discipline simply consisted of setting the alarm clock an hour earlier and putting the coffee pot on the timer button. Every day my effort was a matter of time management and self discipline to spend that hour with Jesus in the morning and then go about my day so proud of my devotion to Him.
Then I had children.
Wake up at 6:00am for Jesus time? Ha! I am pretty sure I didn’t actually go to sleep until 3:00am with newborn feedings and I was lucky if my infant would “sleep in” til 6:30am.
So what I am saying here is that there are seasons where the effort word looks a little different than it had in the past.
Right now I am learning that instead of restricting Jesus to an appointment, I can make choices throughout my day that include Him. Like my daughter revisiting her brother for kisses all day long, I am learning in this season to constantly revisit the Lord.
Changing diapers… sitting at Jesus’ feet. Washing dishes… sitting at Jesus’ feet. Sweeping the floors for the tenth time today… sitting at the feet of Jesus!
What this looks like practically in my day is praying for my family members as I wash the plates that they’ll be eating off of and folding the clothes that they’ll be wearing. It looks like dancing in the living room with my babies to Spontaneous Bethel music every morning worshipping Him, watching It’s Supernatural Network during breakfast with my toddler in awe of Him, and playing the audio version Bible during our morning walks around the neighborhood… filling our souls with the goodness of God!
It also looks like turning it all off: the music, the podcasts, the Christian networks. Turning it all off and just sitting and thinking about Him. This, for me, was the most difficult way to revisit the Lord. Ten minutes of “doing nothing” is a lot to ask of a mom who didn’t sit long enough to even eat her breakfast. However, this has also been the most rewarding way to revisit Him.
Now, even when doing nothing I am sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And it is the most precious time, more precious than those hour long daybreak appointments, because the conversation never stops. I never say Amen and the King is now becoming my Friend.
It is the most precious time because it’s the first minutes I have after both the kids are finally napping. Essentially, I am giving Him the most valuable minutes of my day. I am determined to keep Him the most important thing in my life.
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I can close my eyes and picture my toddler’s determination right now. A beginner walker, she steps/trips over every single toy on the floor between her and her brother. But her momentum never slows because she’s not afraid to stumble. She sets her goal and heads straight toward him. And when she reaches him, with pride on her face, her reward is getting to kiss him over and over and over. She is perfectly pleased to sit there lavishly loving him.
Lord make this my heart for You… because it is already a picture of Yours for me. Because of Your determined love I can revisit precious moments in Your presence ALL. DAY. LONG.
Thank You Jesus.
