Feet!

I was a nurse for over forty years, but in 2017 I re-trained as a Foot Health Practitioner and now visit clients in their own home to care for their feet. Many clients say they couldn’t do my job as they do not like their feet! I really enjoy this and find it very rewarding helping to relieve discomfort from the various problems that can arise, such as corns or ingrowing nails.

Feet are truly fascinating and complex structures and we probably all take them for granted. Leonardo da Vinci captured this complexity in his anatomical sketches way back in 1485. They contain 26 bones, 33 joints, 19 muscles and tendons, 107 ligaments and over 8000 nerves, with more than 200,000 nerve endings. They contain 250,000 sweat glands and produce half a pint of sweat a day! They carry 1.5 times our weight walking and 4 times when running. The average person walks 110.000 miles in a lifetime which is equivalent to nearly five times round the world - phew!! The complexity of the foot and ankle is hard to replicate in prosthetics, even with today’s advanced technology. What an amazing Designer, Creator God. Our human bodies are truly ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm139:14)

Genesis tells us God created all things, creating man in His image, male and female and it tells us He saw that all He had made was very good. Each of us is unique with our very own footprint, in the same way as our fingerprints. Isaiah (52:7) writes “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’. Over one thousand years later Paul in Romans 10:15b quotes from this passage as he describes messengers proclaiming the good news of peace and salvation in Jesus Christ. In him we are set free from captivity to sin. The good news of the gospel brings God’s peace, proclaims His great love for us and tells of His abundant mercy and grace. The gospel gives us hope for today and tomorrow and the promise of eternity with him, when we believe in him and put our trust in him.

As Michael reminded us last week, as people who love the Lord Jesus, we each have our own story to share and the good news of the gospel of Jesus to proclaim. As we do so, we can be assured - we have beautiful feet!

Hilary Smith