A basin and a towel

After that, Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. . . . When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. . . . And he said to them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. . . . ”

—John 13:5–14

Every Tuesday morning a handful of visitors enter the lobby of a local church in this inner city neighbourhood of Vancouver to sit for a while and soak their feet in a basin of hot water, tea tree oil, and Epsom salt. Many of these visitors have not slept in a bed for days or weeks. Others have had no change of socks or shoes for at least that long. Some come with blisters that have been raw for days, or calluses that have grown thick and white through years of neglect.

When the smell is particularly pungent, some people tell me not to get too close. Others invite me over to see what toes look like without any nails. Invariably, as we get talking, one of them will pause for a moment, look at me, and ask me why on earth I am there attending to smelly, beaten-up, old feet.

I smile at the question and we muse together about the weather, or about blisters, or about the stuff of life.

Some people tell me about the jobs they have had or how difficult it is to find work. Others describe the challenges posed by heroin habits, while a few confess to lives of petty crime. Some tell me about the bedbugs and the mice that live in their hotel rooms. Others describe the loneliness and the importance of a smile. Some people tell me about who they were before everything fell apart. Others remember the children they haven’t seen for years, but still love. A few people speak to me of regrets. Still others recount how their mistakes have made them who they are.

I listen to these stories as I watch the caked grime and dead skin break free from the aching feet in the water basin. And I think about how our feet tell the stories of our lives.

In these moments, I think too of the bent figure of Jesus – kneeling low with towel, breathing in the stench, touching filthy skin, scraping off what is dead, massaging what is sore, reviving what is numb – believing, at all times, in the beautiful.

“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. . . . Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:15–17

Jamie Spray served in Vancouver as a summer intern with Mennonite Central Committee’s Praxis program. She is currently in Victoria, B.C., teaching and pursuing further education in the area of international human rights and peace studies.