Value wasted
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“I could have a real job, get paid and have lunch with adults that appreciate my company”
This is something I might have said to my less than appreciative home-school students, maybe more than once. We have all been there. Spinning our wheels, waiting for the ground under us to catch, all the while you just seem to be doing nothing but sinking. Some days I crave appreciation more than a shower or a stain free shirt. The fact is, I am a Mom, appreciation is not really in the cards for me for quite some time. You could say that I have chosen the path of most resistance. I stay home with 10 mad copies of my genetic code, all day, and lead their education, and feed them (mostly) nutritious meals. None of this is on a kids top ten list of valued acts. There are times that I am left feeling rung out, poured out if you will. This is not a complaint. Actually I offer you an encouragement. You might just be exactly where you need to be.
We live in a world where God’s math does not make much sense.
There was a widow, left in debt. Debts so great that she could never repay them. In fact, her sons were to be taken from her to satisfy it. In desperation she went to the Prophet of God, hoping to see if he could offer a way out. The Prophet asked the woman what resources she had on hand. A little oil was all she had in the house.
Gather every jar you can get a hold of from every person your life is connected with. Bring them into your house, shut the door, then you and your sons pour every last drop of that oil out, until all the jars are full. Then sell them, pay your debt and live life with your sons.
If you have read the story you know the woman did exactly as she was told. She collected every jar in the village, big small, misshapen, chipped, all of them. Every one was filled to the top from that little jar. That is God math.
(what little supply you have) + (what God called you to do) = satisfaction
Another woman, this time a guest at a crowded afternoon lunch meeting. Men arguing, debating politics and religion, women whispering questions to each other, but everyone of them fell silent as the spiced scent filed the air. The alabaster jar lay broken. The tax collectors stopped mid sentence, calculating the cost in their heads.
The scene before them did not add up. The woman weeping at the feet of the honored guest did not look like a woman accustom to finery. She looked rung out. No ornaments adorned the mass of curls that she was using to wash the strangers feet. Her lips quivered as she whispered “Master”, over and over.
The other guests could only see the broken vessel, they could not perceive that the moment was right to pour a years wages out, on the feet of the Master.
Take heart. I see. He sees, what the world can not comprehend. What the world calls wasted. A life filled with gifts poured out at the feet of God. Gifted musicians, teaching grade school children. Leaders, Mothering. Men and women that every day turn their back on reason and not for wealth but for His Glory, work for a kingdom not of this world.
He sees.
Jesus said, “You did not offer my water to wash my feet, but this woman has not stopped washing my feet with her tears”
Forgiveness motivates. When God reaches down and changes a heart, perspective shifts. Reality becomes clear. True value is revealed, for some for the very first time.
A life poured out in service of an invisible God baffles the world, but Jesus’ response is the one that is eternal. While the world shakes their head and wonders about the waste, it is Jesus that recognizes the pouring out of your life is the most extravagant gift. Greater than perfume, more costly than oil.
All the while, the world is left asking, who is this God, that calls the hearts of men to serve him forgetting about the cost.
