Dear Riley,
Feet are very much on my mind. Last night Cambry came home from school with
agony in her eyes. She’s been working
in bulk at the will call office lately and she’s the manliest woman on her
shift. So she’s been lifting and standing
and on her feet her entire shift. Then
she drives down to BYU where she walks from the parking lot by the Marriot
Center down to campus. Her feet have
been bothering her for the last little bit, but yesterday the pain reached a
fever pitch. She needs shoes that can
support her feet. Her scary, sturdy,
meaty, high-instep, double-wide feet needed better shoes. She and I were able to find two pair
of shoes last night. She was so hopeful,
if not bouncy, this morning that she would find relief.
The week you left Provo for Thailand, I was reading in
Mosiah 12 where Abinadi is being questioned by the wicked priests of King
Noah. They ask him, quoting Isaiah 52:7,
in verse 20 “What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been
taught by our fathers, saying: How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings;
that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth
salvation;”. Then the next day I read
in Mosiah 15, Abinadi’s answer to the priests.
And in verse 13, he explains that this verse referred to the prophets who
preach of Christ. Then in verse 16 it
expands to those who are/will preach Christ.
Immediately the Spirit touched my heart, whispering to me that your feet
are beautiful right now; publishing salvation is all you are doing in your
missionary work.
Then in case I hadn’t captured the need to ponder this
truth, the next morning the family was reading 1 Nephi 13 and verse 37 jumped
out at me: And blessed are they who
shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and
the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be
lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the
Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful
upon the mountains shall they be.
While feet are not mentioned in 1 Nephi 13, the verse very
much harkens back to the previous Isaiah reference. So why the image of beautiful feet on the
mountains? I did a little research and
the simple answer seems to be that messages in Isaiah’s time were delivered by
the feet of messengers. No cars,
airplanes, bicycles, tv’s or internet waves.
Simple feet.
So while this was on my mind, Josie asked me to read the
Jesus book. It’s from when I was little
and I don’t know that you’d recognize it.
The cover is the pencil sketch of children around Jesus and He has one
child’s face in His hands. Each page of
that book tells a different chapter of Jesus’ life. One of the chapters is about Jesus washing
the feet of His disciples. I looked at
the sketch and considered the love and lowliness of heart that service would
take. Aleah and Parker have feet
aversion: they do not want to massage someone else’s feet. And that’s in a day were we walk paved
parking lots in shoes and socks to and from our car. And our feet are washed daily in fresh, clean
water. I’m thinking the disciple’s feet
must have been much more repulsive.
Riley, your feet are going to get dirty. They are going to show wear. Your feet will largely get you where you want
to go. And because of what you’re doing
right now, your feet are beautiful upon the mountains. This thought is beautiful to your mother.
I love you, son.
Love,
Mom
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