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He Bore Them

For He said, “Surely they are My people, children who will not lie.” So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. Isaiah 63:8-10



For my thirtieth birthday (all praise to God for those 30 years!) I was given a book on the icons of the St. Catherine's Monastery. For now I have it sitting on the window ledge above the kitchen sink. So while I do the dishes, I also have time to look at the icon on the front cover. It is an icon of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ. Standing at the sink the feet of Christ are in my direct line of vision; seen in the image above. After looking at them for some time I noticed that the foot not cradled in Mary's hand was deformed - by all rights the second toe is too long to be normal. It images to us the affliction that Christ bore in His own body for our sakes.

In the midst of our afflictions we praise our Lord Jesus. All Glory to God!
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123 said…
Holy things are capable of carrying many meanings and pieties in imitation of the multiple layers of Scripture and hagiography (literal, typological, allegorical). A more prosaic reading of this icon is a 'Greek toe' or a 'Greek foot' (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton%27s_toe and members.tripod.com/romeartlover/Feet.html); my wife refers to her mother's as a 'chicken hawk' for some reason. This is where the second toe is longer than the big toe and bends over to a greater or lesser extent thus placing the 'end' or 'front' of the toe onto the ground. I know this because me second toes are like this, which totally grosses out my wife. I am glad to see that I am imitating my Christ in some small way; better, he deigned to be emptied and took on the form of a servant like me.
August 25, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Emily H. said…
"which totally grosses out my wife" - as well it should! :D
August 25, 2008 at 8:33 PM
123 said…
Such an unfortunate response since it is a toe made in the image of Jesus' own. :) Perhaps you also missed the reference to its far greater aesthetic value in Western civilization. It is "an idealised form in Greek sculpture, and this persisted as an aesthetic standard through Roman and Renaissance periods and later (the Statue of Liberty has toes of this proportion)." So, both you and my wife are wrong. :)
August 25, 2008 at 8:36 PM
Cha said…
That makes three of us, then. Sorry Christopher, I think it's gross, too...Greek or not.
August 25, 2008 at 9:24 PM
Dixie said…
The lengths that some people will go to suggest their deformities are in fact more desirable and more Christ-like! :P If that makes you feel better, Christopher, for having a "chicken hawk" toes! (Chicken Hawk--now that is funny!:)

I remember as a child being told by the nuns that Jesus' body was absolutely perfect--no defects. And that he was a perfect 6 feet tall...which on reflection seems funny because Jesus wouldn't have been measured in "feet" so a perfect 6 feet might be a 5.72 or a 9.38 in some other measuring system!!! I wonder if that notion of bodily perfection came from the ancient understanding that emperors must be physically perfect or does it come from the Hebrew notion of the unblemished lamb?

Regardless, I am with -C. :D
August 26, 2008 at 7:50 AM
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