My son Calvin has amazingly beautiful feet. I’m sure years from now he may read this and be slightly embarrassed, probably wishing I would have referred to his feet as “handsome” rather than beautiful. Still, he has beautiful feet.

Every time I see Cal’s feet I think of Paul’s words in Romans 10:15, quoting Isaiah, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel!” And when I think of this I pray for Calvin; praying that God would enable his feet to grow strong and carry the Gospel wherever he goes, even far off places.

I especially think and pray for this now as Calvin is just beginning to learn how to walk; just now beginning to depend on those beautiful little feet to carry him on the short little journeys in our home. From the front room watching TV to a lunchtime snack in the kitchen, from an adventure with his Tonka Truck then  across the room to build castles with his Legos.

Sometimes Calvin walks really well, of course sometimes he trips and falls. When he stumbles I’m reminded to pray for him too, praying that as he stumbles in life that he will always be enabled and motivated by the Gospel to get up and continue his journey, yet never walking so proudly that he forgets that it’s only the Gospel that keeps him walking, keeps him on his mission to carry the Good News. After all, Calvin’s feet won’t always be as beautiful, literally, as they are now.

The thing about feet is that they take a lot of abuse, sometimes walking in beautiful places, sometimes walking in rough places. Walking through life will make even the softest feet dirty, hardened, and calloused.

That reminds me of my feet. I’ve made my feet do some rough things, literally and metaphorically. My feet have tripped over rocks, shoe laces, and rough ground just as easily as they’ve tripped over temptation and sin.

So I’m grateful for the Gospel. Surely because the Good News of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection means that I have been redeemed. But too, that in some great way my own ugly feet are just as beautiful as Calvin’s because God has made me to preach the Good News.

I’m thankful for Calvin’s beautiful feet, and for my own ugly feet because they remind me of the journey God has called me on, of the journey that God will call my son on, and the journey that all of us as Christians are on: To preach and encourage people with the Gospel that they might know the one true God.