Month: March 2025

An Unforgettable Gift

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And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 
Mark 14:3 ESV

No one saw the miracle of Easter coming, least of all His closest friends. Yet all along the pathway of His final days on earth, our Savior left them clues as to what lay ahead. Most of our churches begin the Easter story with Palm Sunday, but I would suggest that His final journey began a few days earlier at a supper table with friends. While everyone was arriving, Martha began serving the delicious meal she had prepared, and her brother Lazarus sat next to Jesus, but Mary was nowhere to be found. When, she did appear in the doorway with an alabaster jar in her hand, most likely, no one noticed. The room echoed with the clanking of plates and the hubbub that fills the air at every celebration. Now, though few were aware of her at first, when she stood directly in front of Jesus and broke open the alabaster jar that held her treasure they began to pay attention. As the scent of the powerful fragrance filled the room, Mary began pouring the perfumed oil over the head of Jesus in the manner of anointing that was reserved for the coronation of kings and the ordination of priests. Though no one understood what she was doing, Mary’s demonstration of love was so unforgettable that we are still talking about it today.

“Grace is your permanent process, your permanent position, and your permanent present. It’s where you are seated and where you are standing. For all of eternity, you get to go deeper and deeper into His wonderful grace!” Jennifer Arimborgo

Music of Our Hearts

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Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 NIV

Today as I approach my seventy-fourth year, I am grateful to still be able play my guitar and sing for several long-term care facilities around our community. Strangely, my musical adventures began, not with guitar, but with six years of clarinet lessons. Because my Stepfather was a clarinetist, he chose that instrument for me as well and began teaching me beginning when I was about six. I am grateful now, but at that age, I was less than overjoyed to be down in our basement squawking away through clarinet lessons, while my friends were outside playing baseball. Through those years of what felt like endless practicing my dream was of a world without lessons. Oh, how I hated that instrument then, but today I am grateful for the discipline and the lifetime of music that those tedious lessons have given me.

Photo by Jose De la ossa on Pexels.com

In the same way, the spiritual discipline of prayer helps to prepare us for the challenges that life throws our way. Just as I was able to share precious moments, while my dad was in his final hours, by being able to play my guitar for him, so prayer prepares us to be used by God in the ordinary things of everyday life. Though, the discipline of practicing is unloved by children, they do not realize that childhood is the perfect time for them to learn. In the same way the discipline of prayer, especially when we are young, prepares our hearts for the battles that lie ahead in adulthood. The hours we spend in God’s practice room of prayer, will help prepare us for both our greatest joys and deepest sorrows, our biggest successes and most bitter defeats. Music and prayer are precious gifts, but how we practice those gifts is our choice. The Bible tells us to carefully guard our hearts, and there is no better way to guard them than by prayer. God knows that this discipline, though at times feels tedious, will teach us to play a melody in life that will echo the music of Heaven and the song of the redeemed!

Resting in the Routine

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For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day the Lord sends rain upon the earth.” 1 Kings 17:14 ESV

Few men saw more miracles than Elijah. Fire falling from Heaven, people rising from the dead and parting the Jordan river with his cloak were just a few examples from his resume. But before the fire fell, Elijah spent over three years living in the tiny village of Zarephath. I am sure that to most people watching Elijah’s life seemed pretty routine. But in the middle of that routine, God was working a miracle every morning. Because the fire from Heaven, only fell once, but the flour and oil miraculously multiplied every day! Waters part in our lives when new chapters begin, but only the simple turning of many pages will tell the story that God is writing in our lives. We need to guard our hearts against ingratitude for our daily bread. God gives us mercies every morning to forgive our sins and neighbors in need for opportunities to show His love. So, today, let’s delight in how God stretches our jars of flour and jugs of oil to meet our needs and rest in His routine until a new chapter begins and He sends His rain upon the earth!

Prayer: Thank you Father, for the mercies you give and the daily bread you provide. We trust that you know how to begin and end the chapters of life and that you will keep us safely in the palm of your almighty hand!