Daily Devotion

“"It always means suffering to be a pioneer in any work and in any land. But for the sake of those who are to follow in the way you have trod, can you not bear it?" ... "Go home every vacation and tell your villagers that it is for love of a new-found God that you remove the bandages which deform the body he claims for his temple. Keep on telling, and after a while they will understand, and you will have served your Savior and made things easier for all other girls who shall unbind their feet."”

Mary Porter Gamewell · Her words to her pupil Sarah Wang, in E. D. Hubbard, Under Marching Orders: A Story of Mary Porter Gamewell (1909)

Scripture

Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Reflection

Foot-binding was once a shackle that bound both the bodies and minds of Chinese women. Driven by the love of Christ, missionaries saw lives devastated by this cruel custom and proclaimed liberation through the Gospel. Galatians 5:1 reminds us that Christ's salvation is not only a future hope, but also the present authority to break every yoke of slavery. Today, though our lives may not be bound by physical bandages, we may still be tightly gripped by anxiety, worldly judgments, or inner fears. Only by anchoring our lives once again in God's grace can we lay down our burdens, no longer be held by invisible chains, and live out the abundance and freedom that God originally intended for us in our faith.