Eleven years ago, a 25-year-old Oklahoma resident named Kristi Loyall noticed that her right pinky toe kept going numb.
During a doctor’s visit she was dismayed to learn that she had a rare soft tissue tumor called an epithelioid sarcoma.
Her heart sank when her physician told her that in order to save her life he would have to amputate her right foot – as soon as possible. Without so much as a fair warning, her life was forever changed. She wailed over the seeming injustice of it all, and fell into a deep depression.
Kristi then made what can only be described as a strange request. She asked her doctor if she could keep her foot. He thought she was kidding. But as Loyall put it, “I like weird things, so I thought it would be cool if somebody came to my house and I was like, ‘Hey, by the way, that’s my real foot over there.’”
Following her recovery from the surgery, Kristi retrieved her amputated foot and delivered it to Skulls Unlimited, a company that specializes in preparing skeletons for public display.
When a friend suggested she launch an Instagram account featuring her limb, she was intrigued. For the past ten years she’s been posting photos of her foot to One Foot Wander, staging pictures of it in a variety of settings. Yes, that’s Kristi’s skeletal foot on a putting green in the picture above.
Beyond all expectation, the Instagram account has become a quirky international sensation. People tune in to see where Kristi’s foot has recently been “traveling.”
Most people, after all, have never seen a skeletal foot going to the beach, ordering pancakes at IHOP, or getting a pedicure.
Along the way, Kristi has also made a significant discovery. One Foot Wander is helping others whose lives have been turned upside-down by unexpected crises. She acknowledges that her pictures help show “people who are going through hard situations that life goes on, and that there’s hope.”
The apostle Paul likewise makes it clear that our lives don’t come to an end, even when it feels that way. He writes:
“All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us… (2 Corinthians 1:4-5, The Message).
Without so much as a fair warning, our lives can change in a matter of moments – through a doctor’s diagnosis, a friend or partner’s change of heart, or a car barreling through an intersection.
It can feel incredibly unjust.
But God isn’t surprised. And our life hasn’t been robbed of its meaning.
It just may be that what we’re going through is about to become the very gift that gives somebody else hope.
Eleven years ago, a 25-year-old Oklahoma resident named Kristi Loyall noticed that her right pinky toe kept going numb.
During a doctor’s visit she was dismayed to learn that she had a rare soft tissue tumor called an epithelioid sarcoma.
Her heart sank when her physician told her that in order to save her life he would have to amputate her right foot – as soon as possible. Without so much as a fair warning, her life was forever changed. She wailed over the seeming injustice of it all, and fell into a deep depression.
Kristi then made what can only be described as a strange request. She asked her doctor if she could keep her foot. He thought she was kidding. But as Loyall put it, “I like weird things, so I thought it would be cool if somebody came to my house and I was like, ‘Hey, by the way, that’s my real foot over there.’”
Following her recovery from the surgery, Kristi retrieved her amputated foot and delivered it to Skulls Unlimited, a company that specializes in preparing skeletons for public display.
When a friend suggested she launch an Instagram account featuring her limb, she was intrigued. For the past ten years she’s been posting photos of her foot to One Foot Wander, staging pictures of it in a variety of settings. Yes, that’s Kristi’s skeletal foot on a putting green in the picture above.
Beyond all expectation, the Instagram account has become a quirky international sensation. People tune in to see where Kristi’s foot has recently been “traveling.”
Most people, after all, have never seen a skeletal foot going to the beach, ordering pancakes at IHOP, or getting a pedicure.
Along the way, Kristi has also made a significant discovery. One Foot Wander is helping others whose lives have been turned upside-down by unexpected crises. She acknowledges that her pictures help show “people who are going through hard situations that life goes on, and that there’s hope.”
The apostle Paul likewise makes it clear that our lives don’t come to an end, even when it feels that way. He writes:
“All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us… (2 Corinthians 1:4-5, The Message).
Without so much as a fair warning, our lives can change in a matter of moments – through a doctor’s diagnosis, a friend or partner’s change of heart, or a car barreling through an intersection.
It can feel incredibly unjust.
But God isn’t surprised. And our life hasn’t been robbed of its meaning.
It just may be that what we’re going through is about to become the very gift that gives somebody else hope.