Rock Island's 12-toed Jesus

I broke my fourth toe last week. Clumsiness in a hotel room caused the injury as I stumbled in the dark to turn down the thermostat. You’d think I was booting a field goal, given the force with which I kicked that steel bed frame. But the football went nowhere, the bed stayed still, and I went down. The pain was excruciating. The inconvenience of a broken toe temporarily affects one’s gait as the other four toes pick up the slack. I wonder if we’d walk a bit more naturally if we had an extra toe to spread out the pain.

In the chapel of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, the stained-glass window high above the altar depicts a six-toed Jesus ascending into heaven. Why an early 20th-century artist elected to leave posterity with a polydactyl Jesus is anyone’s guess. I’ll venture a few of my own, in no particular order.

Perhaps the artist wanted to show that physical abnormality is perfectly acceptable or even lovely in the eyes of God. In a world where so many judgments are cast upon the appearance of others, this purpose is not inconceivable.