I Shall Serve~ by Rachel Allen

My master kneeled down before me holding a damp washcloth in his hands. He reached out to touch me, but I stopped him. "Are you going to wash my feet?" I asked, astounded.

He replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

I stood hastily and exclaimed, ""No, you shall never wash my feet!" Did he not understand that I was just a lowly servant? He was my master, my king, and he wanted to serve me? I did not deserve it.

"Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

My heart leapt into my throat. I could not allow him to desert me only because I refused him. "Then, Lord, not just my feet buy my hands and my head as well!" If he saw fit to cleanse me, why shouldn't he cleanse all of me? He wished to wash me, so be it.

"A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean." I understood his position. The streets of Israel were dusty and dry, and our sandals were not ample protection against the dirt of the roads. "And you are clean, though not everyone of you." My eyes flicked up to the other around the table. What was he talking about? I sat, confused and confounded as my King knelt before me and washed my feet. Should I not be washing his? I did not deserve his service, though he had every right to mine. One by one, our King went around the table, washing the feet of every one of his followers. Were they as astounded as I was?

When he was finished, our master stood before us and spoke. "Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me 'teacher' and 'lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Not that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet."

And then I understood. I saw what our teacher was trying to teach us. I saw what out master wanted us to learn from him. If our Master, our Savior, our Teacher, our Shepherd; If the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Beginning, the End; if the Son of GOD could service us and get down on his knees to serve others... why couldn't we?

Did you know that Rachel only like Wintergreen Tic Tac?!