Beautiful Feet....

"How beautiful are the feet...of this who bring good news!" 

“How beautiful…are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Actually, the verse reads, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7)

As I was looking at a pair of feet that tried to walk and struggled, I was lost in thought.

For the story was, that a femur was broken…. A femur of a patient who was HIV positive, and certain orthopedic surgery was needed—yes, a slightly complicated operation—to help this patient walk again, to walk normally, that is.

But the chief of the specific surgery department at a specific hospital in Costa Rica did not want to approve the surgery, because the patient was HIV positive.

So this chief of surgery simply did not approve it. 



And this patient was left receiving minimal surgery but having lost the ability, hope, and motivation to walk. 



Hence it was that I met this patient.

I was one of the individuals helping this patient to walk again. 



Actually, by asking a serious of questions of the medical doctor who now comes to the AIDS facility here in Costa Rica once a week, I was able to get both his attention and his analysis for him to assess x-rays taken of the injury. He then specifically analyzed the gait of the patient, and after further discussion, he provided me a list of specific exercises to strengthen specific muscles and told me, “These muscles are severely atrophied, but if this patient does the hard work, this patient will walk again.”

My understanding is that this is the first time that this patient had been positively told by a knowledgeable physician, “”You will be able to walk again.”

Maybe with a slightly limp, but this patient “would be able to walk.”

Earlier in the day, this physician had told me, “But this patient does not want to practice walking. This patient does not want to do the work.”

And I had told him, “But this patient does. This patient does this hard work with me. In fact, I provide MORE exercises for this patient, and this patient willingly does it…. Last summer, this patient didn’t want to do the work. But this summer that I am here working with them, they do.”

He looked at me, surprised. 



He later quietly commented to me, in Spanish, “The most important thing in working with patients is love….”  
I couldn't have agreed more. 


“How beautiful…are the feet of those who bring good news!”

“For the love of Christ compels us….” -2nd Corinthians 5:14 



[Information has been slightly adapted to protect the identity of the patient.]