Happy NINE Month Anniversary!

 Happy 9 Months! 

This was a reflection from Holy Week from Maundy Thursday. May your love for one another reflect this same kind of upside-down grace—the kind that serves, forgives, and stays close even in the hard moments. May you keep choosing one another with open hearts, again and again.

The Upside-Down Kingdom

In the ancient world, foot washing was the job reserved for the lowest servant in the household. Just picture it. The roads were unpaved and dusty. Sandals were basically ancient Birkenstocks. And everyone was unclean—both metaphorically and literally.

And yet here is Jesus—the one the disciples call Lord—on the floor with a basin and towel.

Peter protests immediately. Of course he does. The whole scene feels wrong. Teachers are not supposed to wash the feet of their students. And certainly not the feet of the ones who will betray, deny, and abandon him before the night is over.

But Jesus insists.

Because this is the shape of the kingdom of God. This upside-down world where the king of the universe kneels. Love stoops low enough to touch the dirtiest parts of our lives. Where grace shows up ready to serve.

Later that evening Jesus breaks bread and shares wine, telling his friends that this meal will become a remembrance: his body given, his blood poured out.

And then he gives them a commandment.

Love one another.

Which sounds simple until you realize what it requires: loving people who misunderstand you, disappoint you, leave you, or hurt you. Loving in the way Jesus loves—kneeling, serving, giving everything.

Maundy Thursday reminds us that God meets us in our vulnerability—in shared meals, in small acts of service, and in the fragile, stubborn work of loving one another even when we don’t fully understand what it might cost us.

We don’t know it, Jesus,
but you will feed us, wash us,
serve us, save us.
And we will do our best to set you aside.
But this is your great stubbornness:
how you give us what we need, even as we
refuse it.

-Kate Bowler