Be Still

 Feet Series, Part 5

The miraculous thing is that He suffers with us.

This God who loved us and wanted us to choose to love Him back, His heart broke as we chose to know evil instead. And the world fell and disease crept in to pull us away. And God did the only thing His Father’s heart could do. He waded into the muck.

He is here. Amazingly, He is with us. Maybe I should stop looking at my feet and start looking at His face.

"Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

While evil ravages and the world rages, He calls us to be still.

In the stillness I can hear His truth:

“The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

The Mighty One. WILL save. Will REJOICE over me!

Will quiet me.

This God I shake my fist at yearns over me. Loves me. Delights in who I am.

And when I look beyond my broken feet I see Him.

He has cried with me and mourned with me. He has suffered my sufferings.

But if I let Him, he redeems.

Only God can make a work of beauty from my pain.

I am still learning what this means. I must choose to learn it again and again. I don’t always understand or want to understand. But looking back, I can say I know Him in a new way now. I know Him as I never would have without suffering. I know Him as the God who walks with me into the darkness and holds me tight, the God who woos me always back to Him.

The God who stays.

And broken feet, they may seem a little thing in the scope of the world’s suffering. I know this. But my broken feet are teaching me to be still. To see Him in all of it.

Yearning for us.

Waiting to redeem.

And beneath my feet blessings abound. I choose to see where my feet get to go. And there I see God. As a reminder, I now photograph my feet in the midst of my blessings. An altar of sorts.

To remember where I’ve been.

I know the pain and frustration will persist. I pray that these will drive me to His grace, over and over. And I pray that in the end, my God will say of my feet:

“How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of her who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)