206 bones

Just a few weeks ago, my wife Louisa and I were in a serious car accident in which we each broke a lot of our ribs. Thankfully, our ribs will heal in time, but my broken ribs got me thinking about the rest of my skeleton. There are 206 different bones in a human skeleton. Of those 206 bones, 54 are in our hands and 52 of them are in our feet. So, amazingly, more than half of the bones in our bodies are found in our hands and feet. Compare this with how many bones are used in speaking. There are only three: Our upper and lower jaws, and the hyoid bone – a tiny bone in the front of your neck, just below your lower jaw, that carries the weight of your tongue.

Showing God’s love

Jesus did a lot of speaking and what he said about how to live our lives in praise to God is very important. But do you know what? Jesus did more than just talk about God’s love; he demonstrated it every day. Jesus walked many kilometres to find sick people, lame people, lonely people and people suffering from mental illness. He used his hands to hug little children; he laid his hands on people to heal them and to bless them.

In Jesus’ day, many people owned servants whose job it was to wash the dusty feet of visitors. It was one of the lowliest jobs there was. I’m quite sure that no kids in Israel grew up wishing that one day they would become foot washers. Yet, shortly before Jesus died on a cross, he knelt to wash the dusty feet of his disciples.

His hands and feet

A man named Francis of Assisi, who lived more than 800 years ago, once said, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” I think what he meant by that is that often our actions speak louder than our words.

I once heard a story about a German village where people tried to repair a statue of Christ that had been shattered to pieces by a WWII bomb. They found most of the pieces and lovingly put them together again – all except the hands and feet. They couldn’t find all the pieces of the hands and feet. So, someone hung a sign on the statue. It said, “I have no hands and feet but yours.” Similar stories like this have been told all over the world, wherever we find people who love Jesus.

And so, dear children, use the 106 bones and the muscles of your hands and feet (and also the three bones and muscles of your mouth) to serve the Lord wherever you are.