During our time in Chiang Mai we came across the “Fish Tank Spa” All you do, is stick your feet in the water and these little fish come up and eat away the dead skin cells on your feet.
This got me thinking.
We all have dead skin on our bodies. Yeah yeah, go ahead and say “ewwww” and make the face…still doesn’t change the fact that we have dead skin. Walk into the skin care section of any store and you will find lotions and exfoliating scrubs to leave your skin healthy and fresh. Now think about this spiritually. How often do we let God exfoliate our spiritual skin? How often do we stick out feet in the tank of water and let the fish do their work?
You will probably sit there and stare at the tank.
You’ll debate about putting your feet in because you aren’t really sure what to expect. You aren’t sure what it will feel like. Will it feel good? Will it hurt?
So you finally work up the courage to stick your feet in. You might be surprised. Your hands will probably go up to your face as you gasp from the sensation. Do you cry? Do you laugh?
Maybe you will cry and laugh at the same time. You may even desperately want to take your feet out or shake off the fish that are eating those dead cells. But instead of taking your feet out you squirm. You do everything you can to keep your feet still in the water but the rest of you squirms.
You may flail your hands while laughing…and crying.
Then you’ll make a few faces which express concern, pain, amusement.
Then you will probably hang our head and think “Why on earth did I stick my feet in here? How is this going to help?”
But if you wait long enough, if you let God do His work, then a child-like faith and curiosity will arise. The biting, the pulling, the uncomfortable strangeness of it may just fascinate you.
May you come to realize that the whole experience happened to bring something new.
It’s uncomfortable. But you will eventually pull your feet out of the tank. And they will have fresh, new, soft, skin. The way God intended them to be.
God doesn’t desire His people to have dead skin. He wants them to have LIFE. He wants us to be clean.
New.
Reborn.
So get over yourself.
Get over your fear.
Get over your anxiety.
Get over your expectations and anticipations and
STICK YOUR FEET IN THE WATER.
Then God will do His work.
All He asks is that you take a step of faith and immerse yourself in the restoration that He has in store for you.
