Beautiful Feet

by Pastor Karen Runjo

You’ve heard the joke, right, where a man is hanging onto a cliff in bad weather, praying for God to rescue him? A raft comes, a boat comes and finally a helicopter but he sends them all away, saying God is going to rescue him. When he gets to heaven he asks God why he didn’t rescue him, and God says – well I sent a raft, a boat and a helicopter… God usually sends help in the form of people!

The story of the widow who helped Elijah in 1 Kings 17 springs to mind. That is a woman in desperate circumstances who still shows a willingness to help someone else. An unlikely source of help for that alone, let alone the fact that she wasn’t a Hebrew so was even more unlikely to be chosen by God to offer assistance. Yet that is who God chose – the unlikely and the already desperate.

Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” How beautiful are the people God sends to help us?!

There is an African proverb that says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go further, go together”. I’m sure you can agree with me that I have gone further in life for the beautiful, even if unexpected, people God has sent into my life who offered assistance. The beauty of God…in others.

Prayer thought / Challenge

Read through 1 Kings 17. Think about the beautiful, though maybe unexpected people who have come into your life right when you needed help. Thank God for their presence. Thank them, too, by way of a card, text or phone call, for being willing to help and be God’s beautiful hands and feet.