Now that I am almost 40, I am realizing that the carefree, barefoot days of my childhood are catching up to me in the form of cracked callouses and fallen arches.
The soles of my feet are not beautiful and cause me a few moans and groans these days.
Perhaps that’s why these verses caught my attention: “Son of Man,” God said to the prophet Ezekiel, “this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever.”
Isn’t it funny to think about the bottoms of Jesus’s feet? Were they calloused? Does the dust that clung to them thousands of years ago still float around Israel today? Why would Jesus have been willing to put on feet at all… and then be willing to walk in the same filth that we walk in here on earth?
When the Lord spoke to Ezekiel about the place of the soles of His feet, He was talking about Israel and specifically about the temple. When David dedicated his treasures to be used in the construction of God’s temple, he said it was “because of my devotion to the house of my God.”
From his heart of devotion, David prayed, “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours.”
My Sunday school students and I have been studying the life of David, taking a closer look at David’s devotion and the God who inspires such devotion. Because God was so great, David placed his whole life in God’s hand. Because David was wholly true to the Lord, God blessed him with an eternal covenant.
Even hundreds of years later, the prophet Ezekiel heard God saying, “This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet…”
This weekend, seeing video footage and reading news stories detailing the attack of Israel by Hamas brought these Scriptures more sharply into focus. That is the place of the soles of God’s feet. Oh Lord, save your people.
This weekend, even as Israel was attacked, one little boy from my Sunday school experienced trauma at home. Even as he described it to me, I thought of those feet of Jesus, pierced and bleeding on the cross, and then I knew that the place of His throne and the place of the soles of His feet is also in the hearts of each of His people who are wholly true to Him. Oh Lord, rescue this child.
My achy feet can be eased by a new pair of sneakers, but only God can mend a broken world. Let us be wholly true to Him, as the place of the soles of His feet, no matter where following Him may lead.
You can find free Bible lessons for children at my website, including this series “Wholly True: Learning Devotion from the Life of David.”
Sarah Dixon Young 