It was our first year of marriage, we lived in a small one bedroom apartment, and were hardly ever home because we were busy working, going to school, serving in ministry, or out with friends and family. Our apartment was not much more than a place where we spent the nights. We had no kids yet and the freedom was abundant. When I had a day off, I didn’t typically spend it at home, instead I was out biking, hunting, at the gym, etc… With a lifestyle like that, you can assume that the laundry and dishes often piled up. Unfortunately, they eventually needed to get done. So, the time came when I had a Monday off of work, Morgan was at work and school for the entire day, and I decided that I was going to spend as much of the day that I needed, to do a deep clean of our apartment, complete with the dishes and getting every single piece of laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away. I slammed a cup of coffee and got right to work! What would take the most time is the laundry, so I started with that. We were on the third floor and the laundry was on the first. So, I would go down, get all the towels, whites, and colors sorted into the wash, come back up, clean for a bit, then return to dry and fold. The apartment was starting to shape up and the last thing that I had to do was the mountain of dirty dishes. I decided to start running the hot water in the sink with some dish soap so that the dishes could soak for a little bit and before I scrubbed and rinsed them. In the meantime, I went down to fold the dry laundry and bring it back upstairs. The only problem was that filling the sink only takes a minute or so and folding the laundry takes quite a while longer than a minute. In the rush of trying to get these chores done before Morgan got home to surprise her with a clean apartment, I let the sink run for some time. As I walked back upstairs, I opened the door into the apartment and there was a half-inch of water all over the place spilling from the kitchen into the living room! All the towels and even some clothes I had just washed, dried, and folded are now being used to soak up the disaster of water I had accidentally created. By the time Morgan got back home, there was still a mountain of laundry to re-do, but the kitchen floor was as clean as it's ever been! It was one of those moments where you have to tell yourself that it was the “thought that counts”. I just wanted to do something that would bring a smile to her face and make her happy after a long day of work, but things don’t always go as planned… after she got home, she noticed the house was mostly clean, and I explained to her the moment of air-headedness that caused near disaster, and she was appreciative, nevertheless.
Similarly to the way the sink overflowed in a time where I was trying to show love to my wife, Mary’s love for the Lord overflowed in an act of extravagant worship. Just imagine the scene, the house was buzzing with the news and excitement of their brother and the friend of many who had just been brought back to life. LITERALLY, the decaying body of the man had his soul breathed back into him! The conversation would’ve undoubtedly been filled with that exciting content. Personally, I would’ve been asking Lazarus what it felt like, where’d he go, what’d he see, etc… However, Lazarus, the guy who had just been raised from the dead, wasn’t the focal point of the party. Instead, it was the one who had done the raising, Jesus. And there just so happened to be someone at the party who noticed who the real focus was. Mary was gripped by the presence of Christ, and with a reckless abandon, poured it on Jesus. Like a sink left running with no one around to stop it… Mary felt no shame from the room around her, she was unhindered by an internal love for material possessions, and her worship for her Lord permeated into the world around her. Both literally by sense of smell and figuratively by an act of extravagant worship. Does your love for your savior overwhelm you to the point where it overflows and becomes evident to the world around you? So much so that it makes them stop, look, question, and be shaken by it?
Similarly to the way the sink overflowed in a time where I was trying to show love to my wife, Mary’s love for the Lord overflowed in an act of extravagant worship. Just imagine the scene, the house was buzzing with the news and excitement of their brother and the friend of many who had just been brought back to life. LITERALLY, the decaying body of the man had his soul breathed back into him! The conversation would’ve undoubtedly been filled with that exciting content. Personally, I would’ve been asking Lazarus what it felt like, where’d he go, what’d he see, etc… However, Lazarus, the guy who had just been raised from the dead, wasn’t the focal point of the party. Instead, it was the one who had done the raising, Jesus. And there just so happened to be someone at the party who noticed who the real focus was. Mary was gripped by the presence of Christ, and with a reckless abandon, poured it on Jesus. Like a sink left running with no one around to stop it… Mary felt no shame from the room around her, she was unhindered by an internal love for material possessions, and her worship for her Lord permeated into the world around her. Both literally by sense of smell and figuratively by an act of extravagant worship. Does your love for your savior overwhelm you to the point where it overflows and becomes evident to the world around you? So much so that it makes them stop, look, question, and be shaken by it?