The Least Of These

"...Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to see me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."    Matthew 25:34...40.


I recently did a very stupid thing.  I know, any of you who have read my blogs are probably thinking...AGAIN?  No, I didn't glue my fingers together this time, not even my toes, but I did manage to break my baby toe!  We had just checked into our motel room a week ago in Jonesboro, Arkansas on a Saturday night where Keith was to preach the next day.  It was around midnight and I was tired, not looking, and managed to  kick HARD the leg of a sofa with my baby toe, immediately sending excruciating pain up my leg.  My poor little baby toe has always been a source of embarrassment to me since it's always been short, fat and stubby and to my girls' dismay they have inherited my ugly baby toe gene (Ashley calls it her potatoe toe) but now it became increasingly fat, purple and ugly!  It was amazing to me how hurting the tiniest, most despicable part of my body could affect my life.  For the next several days I hobbled barefoot around the motel, only forcing my toes in a closed-toe shoe to  hobble into church, slump down on a pew, then kick off my shoe.  The most humiliating thing about injuring my toe is having to back down on my new-found comittment to walking three times per week with Keith.  Just when I was beginning to look forward to our long "walking and  talking" sessions I've had to give it a break.  Keith hasn't complained though!  It has reminded me of what Paul said to the Corinthians about treating even our weakest body parts with special honor and how if one body part suffers, we all suffer with it.  It's also made me think of what Jesus said about us serving our weaker members, "the least of these".  I admit that my focus is sometimes on myself and what makes me comfortable instead of reaching out to the hurting.  I wish I could be more like my husband who has ALWAYS since I've known him shown kindness and compassion to the little guy and treated everyone as if he were Jesus Himself.  Just in the last 24 hours I've seen Keith spend hours counseling with the hurting, both on the phone and face to face, take in a homeless young man to give him temporary shelter in our home, visit a murder convict in jail, take food to a family whose loved one is on hospice care, all while suffering himself with bronchitis.  Keith not only preaches the word but practices it.  He would be embarrassed if he knew I was typing this but there's not much of a chance of that since he refuses to embrace technology...doesn't have time for it.  Keith doesn't blog, text or tweet and says "I plan to go to heaven without any Facebook friends!"  I have no doubt he'll make it there.  I just hope God gives me grace and a healed toe so I can walk and talk on those golden streets by his side.