Lenten reflection on scripture — footwashing

(John 13: 1-5)

All over the world
midwives and doulas,
obstetricians, clergy, nurses,
folks who work for
hospital housekeeping
with their kind eyes
and quick hands,
and state police, too,
cruisers pulled off the road,
for a backseat delivery,

see the same thing –
parents counting newborn toes.

They are not vital organs –
lungs, heart, eyes,
but there is something sweet
about completeness.

And so, in spite of our
significant servanthood theology
read back into the story,
I rather suspect that Jesus,
knowing that the hour
had come to depart,

took a basin
and bent down just to count
one-hundred twenty
well-loved, born again toes.

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