Feet, window to the body?

A new foot massage place opened near my friend’s home. She was given two coupons for a cheap foot massage, was I interested? She knew it was a rhetorical question. We both like foot massages, but for different reasons.

For her, it is an exercise in relaxation. For me, a foot massage is an opportunity to be told things about my organs, a subject I at times, oddly, border on being obsessively interested in. Though opinions on reflexology vary, I am in the camp that believes our bodies are intricately linked systems. Why wouldn’t areas on our feet be linked to the liver, neck, or stomach? Foot massage is a fun and relatively cheap way to find out the status of my insides.

In a classic example of “if you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud,” I met my match. I didn’t think there was anyone more interested in my organs than me. I was wrong.

Mr. Hou is clearly a firm believer in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and as the massage went on, pointed out many things wrong with my health; all of which can be helped by regular foot massage. We started off with the surprising news that something’s up with my ovaries.

It turns out we were the only customers that afternoon. As the staff walked by, they’d stop in and ask if we spoke Chinese, where we were from, and how long we’d been in China. All standard questions. At one point it was a little surreal to be discussing the urinary tract of my friend with five strangers!

Her Chinese is much better than mine (I don’t really know my organ vocabulary as well as I should, given my interest), so after the crowd left she translated that I also have a “poop and pee” problem. This was news to me. My stomach is clearly bad and how do I live with such dry skin?  Thankfully it wasn’t all bad news. I would now be sleeping better after he solved my sleeping problems. (I had, indeed, not been sleeping well). I learned that by pressing 100 times a day on the outside of the leg, my legs will become thinner.

I don’t really think I have serious problems with all of the areas Mr Hou listed. Is something going on? Maybe. Or, as my Doubting Thomas Foot Massage friend says, “It hurts because someone is pushing really hard on you!” Either way, I, like David was reminded to “praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:14 (ESV)

My soul knows it well.

I don’t know if a pressure point on the bottom of my foot corresponds to my soul, but I do know that even in a foot massage the wonderful work of God is present, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

In what ways do you see God reflected in your body today? Leave a comment and let’s see how many organs we list.