Ahem.
I've also always been someone who doesn't care what others think of me. Ok, so in the 8th grade I didn't like that I only had one pair of Guess jeans to wear. And, with my hourglass figure, they were getting a little too big in the waist and a little too tight in the hip area. Ok ok, so it bothered me that I didn't have the straight hair with the big puffy bangs. My curls had a mind all their own.
But for the most part, I've never cared a stitch what anyone thinks of me. So my "legacy" has never really been a focus.
But I was recently asked to speak about how my mother has affected/influed my spiritual life. And it got the wheels a-turnin'. I can wax poetically about the influence my parents have been on my spiritual life. What will/can my children one day say about their Momma? (Besides the fact that she makes a mean 'smoofie'.)
And then this morning I sat down for my quiet time.
If you're like me and grew up in church, then this story will not be anything new. I could have easily put it on auto-pilot this morning and skimmed right over it, missing a crucial part. If you don't know the story, then sit back and be WOWED at our Lord.
I know I've noticed it before. I know I've had these same thoughts before. But this morning it seemed different.
It's a touching story on many levels. Knowing how things are going to turn out (the crucifixion) it makes this moment in Jesus' life very bittersweet. It's in Matthew 26:6-13, Jesus Anointed at Bethany.
We don't know her name. We don't know her history. We don't know her connection to Simon the Leper (he had opened his home to Jesus). We don't know if she had suffer ridicule in junior high b/c she too, like me, had a unibrow. We don't know if she had an hourglass figure while all her friends were teeny tiny and flat chested.
What we do know is that she came UNASHAMED to the feet of Jesus. That alone is example enough to us.
"A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant."
If you've ever worked in a non-profit setting, especially a church or Christian organization, you know that funds are tight. TIGHT. The disciples' response can seem funny to us. But remember that we know the end of the story. They did not. These were men who had to feed the thousands who came to hear the Master. These were men who had given up their belongings to become fishers of men.
These were men who had nothing.
So they new the value of the contents of that alabaster jar. They knew it could've been sold and the money "given to the poor."
Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial."
That alone would've been a WOW moment for this woman. A woman whose name is not mentioned. A woman who showed a simple way of praising her Lord. A woman who was UNASHAMED.
But there's more.
And this was my WOW moment this morning.
"I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Wow.
That was her legacy. We don't really know her. We don't know if she was praised by her husband and children. We don't know if she was nobility. Or penniless.
But we know that our Master saw her actions worthy enough to be mentioned in Scripture. And told to the generations. And so I'm telling it to the generations.
I want to be a woman who pours oil over my Lord. I want to be a woman who is UNASHAMED.
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ..."
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