• What an Investment
As Judas and others criticise what Mary has done, see what Jesus says in verse 6: ‘leave her alone – why are you bothering her, she has done a beautiful thing.’ A beautiful thing!
When we live our lives as an offering poured out to Christ it is never a waste – it is a beautiful thing.
When you’re cooking for the luncheon club, or washing the dishes or cleaning the Salvation Army hall, or when you’re selling the War Cry (church paper) or sharing with the young people, or feeding the homeless. When you are taking time to pray, to sing and play your instruments - listening to someone in need. When you are calling on someone who is unwell, phoning or writing to the one who has not been worshipping for a while...
Whatever it is you have to do and have to give, when you do it with all you have within you, out of love (heart, mind, soul and strength) it is a beautiful thing!
Mary’s actions in these moments are not a waste. They are an investment. What she did may have seemed reckless to the one who cannot see deep within the soul. But this wasn’t really about one solitary moment in life. This is about her future. Mary is making an eternal investment.
How we live our lives effects our future. Take marriage as an example. Growing marriages need to be invested in, and if as a couple you still want to be together when you are 65, 85, 105, still with that same sparkle and excitement in being together – you have to invest heavily in the relationship.
And somehow Mary seems to have worked out important things that even Christ’s closest companions hadn’t managed to get their heads round.
It would seem that somehow she understands something of what Jesus is about to do. She absolutely understands what Jesus has already done for her, and she breaks the jar and gives over to him everything she has to give. In these precious moments Mary is saying, ‘Jesus everything I am, and everything I ever hope to be – its yours now and always. Jesus, everything I have and anything I will ever have, take it and use, bless it and be blessed by it.’
Everything we are and anything we have is only worth something when broken and poured out on Jesus.
Mary was investing in eternity when she broke that jar.
Major Sheila Loman
Birkenhead Corps UKT
Your innate intelligence shines through as does your passion for sharing the message of love in serving Jesus. I hope you'll keep writing as I can see your articles being used in developing a book of meditations.
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