On this day in 1928, mail delivery by dog sled began in Lewiston, Maine.

Way before the Internet, letters were hand-written and hand-delivered. And if you lived in the country off a snow-covered road, you’d have a tough time getting your mail. If you were expecting only a pile of bills and ads, that might be OK. But if you depended on the postal service to deliver important documents or letters from someone you loved, you wouldn’t be satisfied waiting till spring. And think how you’d greet the mail-delivering dog sled driver! You see the sled in the distance—beautiful! You throw on your coat, hat, boots, and gloves, and run to meet the dogs and driver. It would make your day.

Today’s verse sounds funny because we don’t usually think of feet as beautiful. Isaiah isn’t saying that the person’s feet are physically attractive. When he writes, “How beautiful . . . are the feet of those who bring good news,” he is highlighting what the person is bringing—good news. It would be like you living in the Maine boondocks and seeing the dog sled saying, “What beautiful dogs!” because they were bringing you essential letters.

In this case, the good news on the mountain is God’s peace and salvation. Those words would sound good to anyone, but especially to the people of Israel who had been living as conquered captives.

These days we aren’t living in an occupied land dominated by a foreign dictator. But people are captive in other ways—to sin and to Satan. So God’s message of freedom is wonderful, welcome news. And get this—God has given us, his people, the great privilege of delivering that news. We don’t need dog sleds; we just need to tell others about Jesus when we get the chance.

When we do that, we’ll have beautiful feet!

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns! (Isaiah 52:7).

To Do

When you put on your shoes over the next few days, think of how beautiful your feet are when you deliver the good news about Christ.

Also on this day

This is Games Day.

1606—The Susan Constant, Goodspeed, and Discovery set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, Virginia was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.