Pouring Perfume

I can't take any credit for today's post. I don't know if this was a personal revelation to the dear friend who shared this with me or if she heard it from someone else. Either way, it was a huge blessing to me and so I pass it on to you.

I was reminded of this bit of encouragement when Oswald referenced Mark 14:6 today. Mark 14 tells of a woman of Bethany who broke open a bottle of extremely expensive perfume and with it annointed Jesus' head. This perfume was valued highly and she was ridiculed openly for "wasting" this valuable resource.
"Why, this could have been sold and the money used to help the poor!"
"Look how many people could have been helped if only this resource would have been used wisely!"
"Why waste this valuable resource on one person? Why not use it for the benefit of all?"
The retribution could have gone on and on. But Jesus stops it:

"Leave her alone," He said. "She has just done something wonderfully significant and beautiful for me."

I wonder if she ever (even if briefly) questioned her own behavior after hearing the reactions of the others in the room? Did she feel guilty? Judged? Stupid? Wasteful? Did she worry whether or not she'd made the right choice? If so, she must have felt an enormous amount of relief when she heard Jesus' response. "She has done something of value for me." In her total abandon to Jesus, she performed a valuable service. It wasn't her goal to perform a valuable service; it was her goal to love Jesus with abandon.

I have things of high value in my life. I have an expensive (in more ways than one) education; I have my health, my time, my energy, my money. What or who do I pour these resources out on? How do I spend them? Do I spread them around for the general good? Do I hoard them for myself? Do I perform important works with them that make me feel special? Or do I pour them out in reckless abandon on the head of Jesus?

I could stop here and let you ponder how this might apply to you but I'm not going to. I'm going to share with you just a little about how it applies to my friend. A lot of women have expensive educations (my friend is one of them) and some of those women choose to pour this resource out, not for the good of many, or the poor, but on their families. Some wonder if they're making the right choice. Some of us know we're making the right choice but still have problems when we hear the ridicule or questioning of good intentioned friends. My friend says that we are like this woman of Bethany, who poured the expensive perfume on Jesus. The world will always be there, the poor, the sick, the hungry. We have but this one fleeting moment with our children- this one opportunity to influence them for Jesus. And I know that it is going to just fly by- like the time Jesus' friends had with Him. But as I pour my perfume out on my three children, and she pours her perfume out on her three children, together, we have drawn six children closer to the Father. And they'll tell six friends, and they'll tell six more friends, and six more, and six more....