As parents we do some things that make us look and feel crazy. For more times than I can remember I have told my children “hey, come here and let me smell your butt” when I needed to check if they had a dirty diaper.
Being a father has taught me a lot about faith. It has helped put my relationship with my Heavenly Father in a perspective that I never would have known without having children of my own. Jesus paid a price for us that we could have never paid ourselves. Too often people seem to have this idea that we have to clean up our lives and “get right with God” before going to church or coming to Christ. Fortunately I feel convicted that it’s quite the opposite; we take our sins to him and he takes care of the mess.
I would never tell my child to clean their self up and change their own diaper before they’re worthy of spending time with me. Neither does Jesus. He take the messes we make for ourselves, the ones we can’t clean up on our own, and he washes us white as snow.
Then he commands us to forgive others.
In John 13 Jesus washes his disciples feet. He explains to them that John 13:10 “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” (By “not every one of you”, he was talking about Judas). Then in 13:14 he explains “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” I don’t know that he is necessarily telling us to wash one another’s feet, but I do know that he is telling us to forgive one another. Just like he did for us.