The humble intimacy of Maundy Thursday. By Rev. Mary Lee Wile

Looking back at the Grow Christians pandemic posts for Maundy Thursday about the creative ways families shared this night’s ritual, part of me wonders if our church services can ever approach the intimacy of the foot-washing done by family members for one another. But then I then think again of how our call as followers of Jesus is to be his family now, all of us back together, to dare to bare our feet and let someone else touch them. That in itself feels incredibly intimate. Throughout my long years as a deacon, I’ve treasured the opportunity to kneel with the basin and towel on Maundy Thursday, to hold and wash the feet of my siblings in Christ.

It’s not just that I’ve always had a particular appreciation for feet (having loved going barefoot long into adulthood, and, in my later years, having endured three foot surgeries). It’s also that when I think of our feet, I remember the lines from psalm 139: “I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well.” Evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman says that our feet are what make us human.

I still have the hospital footprints of my two boys (now 46 and 50 years old), tucked into the pages of their baby books, tiny reminders of the sweet tenderness of infancy. I loved holding those soft, round feet, marveling that anything so small would ever be able to support the child. Yet by the end of their first year, both boys were teetering upright on those feet, longing to run headlong into life itself.

To read the entire article from Rev. Mary Lee click here.