by David Melton
We are getting ready for them. By the time you read this they will be striding through our halls, bounding up our stairs, propped up on our dorm furnishings, standing outside our office doors. Feet. Student feet. Typically they come in pairs. All shapes and sizes, colors, and accessories, moving at random speeds, some emitting particularly odorous … oh well — you know.
We are thinking a lot about feet as the fall semester starts. Feet are good. We want a lot of them! New carpet isn’t worth much if it doesn’t get walked on. It does my soul (and our budget) good to walk into our student lounge, the Boyler Room, on move-in days and see feet all over the place. Sure, when rainy autumn days come I hope they will wipe them on the mats by the door, and when the snow comes, I…I can’t talk about that yet. But when August comes we are looking for feet, and lots of them, at Boston Baptist College.
Boston feet are pretty special. They will walk back and forth to classrooms where professors, men and women of God every one, will pour into students like you can hardly imagine. Those student feet will track across the coolest city in the country, will step into some awesome churches, and will help build those churches into stronger gospel-preaching stations. Later in spring 2014, Boston feet can travel far and wide to learn on location with the incredible opportunity to step near some of the great treasures of New Testament manuscripts in Ireland and the UK (more on that next spring). Yes sirree, the feet that walk in our doors this fall are in for quite a stroll.
But I am thinking even farther down the line. Paul talked about how beautiful the feet are of those who take the gospel of Jesus to those who don’t have it yet. For Boston students, that almost certainly means that no matter where you work, where you grab a pizza, where you sit in Fenway Park or Gillette Stadium, or where you fill your tank … you have an opportunity for “foot beautification.” Then I think of Boston alums all over the world whose feet once walked our halls, and now grow more stunning each day as they serve around the globe. I particularly thought of (and prayed for) Randall and Rachel Fernandez this morning as I read about security concerns in Pakistan.
To get to destinations far and wide with the gospel, the journey has to start. For many young people, Boston Baptist College is pretty much the starting line. They will come from homes and churches and youth ministries and all kinds of situations and step onto our campus. They will walk up our stairwells, stroll across our “Walk of Light” and read about giants who have walked before us. They will wear out sneakers, plop the flip-flops, and yes even eventually drag out the snow boots. Student feet. They are coming any day now. Can’t wait to see them. Can’t wait to see how beautiful they become.