In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:5-7

By all accounts, Maud Sherwood Scott (1868-1950) was a godly woman. One undated, unverified story about her was related by her family.  Mrs. Scott was born in Illinois, but her family moved to north Texas when she was a child. There, she met and married Arthur Carroll Scott, M.D., (1865-1940), the co-founder of the medical institution that is now Baylor Scott & White Health.

 A cradle Episcopalian, she became a member of Grace Presbyterian in Temple when the family moved to Temple in 1892. The family eventually moved into an expansive house at the corner of West French and North Main, still standing today.

There, she and her children lived a comfortable life, but she frequently worked in church missions, especially with the poor and disenfranchised in downtown.

As the story goes, Mrs. Scott and her children were walking to church one Sunday morning. The wagon-rutted dirt streets were difficult to manage, especially since Mrs. Scott’s children were dressed in neatly ironed frocks with spit-shined shoes and neatly rolled socks.  

As they walked, Mrs. Scott noticed a gaggle of dirty, barefooted children playing in the middle of the dusty corduroy street. She called out to them, “Why aren’t you children in Sunday school this morning?”

They answered, “Because we ain’t got no shoes. You have to have shoes to go to church.”  

She replied, “Oh no, you don’t.”

She then ordered her children to take off their shoes and socks. She gathered up the disheveled children, and they all walked to church barefooted.  All children were equal in God’s eyes, shoes or no shoes.

That’s what Advent means: Jesus came to a scruffy world, to live like us, to show us the way of love, to reveal through his words and deeds the true nature of God.

With just that simple act of understanding, Mrs. Scott taught the street children that they are loved and accepted, no matter what. She also impressed on her own children the importance of accepting others just as they are, shoes or no shoes.

Patty Benoit

Photo credit:  Texas History Portal

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