The North American Division’s assistant to the president, Ken Denslow, relates the true story of a Michigan man named Bill, who was taking Bible studies from the pastor of the Battle Creek Tabernacle. After Bill had completed the study on the Sabbath, the pastor invited him to attend Sabbath worship services. Two weeks later Bill showed up. The church members were celebrating Communion that day, so the pastor suggested to Bill that he go to the room where the men were meeting for the foot-washing ceremony, just to observe how it was done.
Until that time, other than the pastor, Bill had known only two Seventh-day Adventists: one was his physician and the other a friend who worked as a trash collector in the city. That Sabbath Bill walked into the room where the men were meeting, and the first thing he saw was his doctor kneeling down and washing the feet of the trash collector. Bill told Denslow that he already had been convinced of the truthfulness of the biblical teachings he’d been studying, but it was that day that he made his decision to join the Adventist Church.
Christianity is the great equalizer. In God’s eyes we have no special status because of our profession, our wealth, our education, our ethnicity, our gender. We are all equally His children and recipients of His love.
“As I have loved you,” said Jesus, who washed the feet even of His betrayer, “so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
May God help us to continually show others that kind of love.
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Sandra Blackmer is features editor for the Adventist Review. This article was published October 12, 2011.
