An old Chinese colporteur came to the missionary one day begging him for a needle and thread.
“What do you want it for?” the missionary asked.
“To sew up my heel,” he replied. Then he showed him the back of his heel where the skin had cracked open and he was going to sew the skin together to help it heal.
“Oh!” exclaimed the missionary. “You musn’t use a needle and thread for that. I have some ointment in the dispensary that will help you.”
“Oh, I didn’t want to bother you for any medicine,” said the old man.
However, the missionary insisted that he put his foot up on a stump in the yard while he washed off the sore spot and rubbed on the ointment. Then he covered it with a piece of tape.
“How about the other foot?” his friend asked him.
“Oh, that isn’t bad enough yet,” replied the old man. But it was evident that it needed attention too. After a while, the missionary said: “Mr. Colporteur, do you know you have beautiful feet?”
The old man was terribly embarrassed. “My feet-beautiful?” exclaimed he. “Oh no; they are rough and ugly and covered with scars. You know I have been walking up and down these hills for many long years, and my feet are nothing to look at.”
“Oh, but don’t you understand,” his friend explained. “Have you never heard of what it says in the Book of Isaiah about feet like yours?”
“Feet like mine?”
“Yes, feet like yours,” replied his friend. Then he asked, “Where have you been to?”
“Just over the hills,” replied the old man.
“What were you doing over there?”
“I have been over to those villages selling gospels and telling the people about the Lord Jesus.”
“Yes, I know,” said the missionary. “You have been over the hills with the gospel of peace. Well; that is just what Isaiah was talking about. He says: ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.’” Isa. 52:77How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! (Isaiah 52:7).
“Are you sure he didn’t say the mountains were beautiful?” the old man asked, looking away to the hills.
“No. He says very clearly, ‘How beautiful... are the feet...!’ “
“Well,” exclaimed the old man as he went on his way. His heart was encouraged and strengthened by the Word of the Lord. He went away convinced that it wasn’t the way your feet looked, but how and where you walked that makes them beautiful.
— Missionary Stories
ML 05/28/1967