A compliment is a gift, not to be thrown away carelessly, unless you want to hurt the giver.
Eleanor Hamilton
The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.
Charles Dudley Warner (1829 - 1900)
1Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2"But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot."
3While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
4Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.
6"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Mark 14:1-9
Growing up I had such a terrible mentality. My father raised me to pay attention to how and where I spend my money. Let me first make this clear. I am not advocating being a ridiculous irrational spender here. I am simply stating in some heartfelt moving times you should be an extravagant giver. Be a wonderful giver of extravagant gifts and acts of love.
For at least the past 5 years I believed in abundance but obviously not a bountiful abundance. It took time for me to truly believe that anything was possible. Even then for sometime I felt it was only necessary to give to those who needed instead of giving for the love of giving. I am sure we all have felt the immediate thought of love and sacrifice to give. I just did not understand it fully.
It is funny looking back now on my immaturity and lack of understanding with true giving. Giving without any limits or writing a check for someone or some purpose that makes you feel uncomfortable. About 2 years ago I was sitting in a restaurant and Angie had this off the wall desire to just buy everyone’s meal in that restaurant. At the time it seemed like such a ridiculous action to me. Why? I thought. There is so much more opportunities in the world to do better things with money than to buy an entire restaurant their meal. I mean think of all the poor people in the world. My calculating mind determined the expense to be roughly $3,000. That would feed an entire village in Africa for an entire year. $3,000. But for some reason that day I ripped her wonderful feeling of giving a joyful, extravagant gift to shreds and called it ridiculous. I tore it apart with my calculating mind. Abundance. $3,000 is nothing to a lot of people in this world. To some, it’s 1/4th of their annual salary. To a couple of friends of mine here in Texas it’s a days pay. “There will always be poor.” That’s what Jesus said in verse 7. What does he mean by that? He is simply stating that no matter how much good you do there will always be poor people out there. I remember the scene in Schindler’s List where after all the wonderful things he did that saved thousands of people’s lives, he could only think of the things he did not do. I respect that thought, but sometimes you need to splurge on yourself and on others and realize there will always be poor people to help. Jesus was not condoning this act for every time you rather give to yourself or people who are more fortunate instead of the poor. Everyone knows all the wonderful things He did for them. But this lady wanted to do something for him. To pamper Jesus and this is the feeling she was given to do so. She poured pure nard (extremely expenssive fragrances) all over Him. It says this nard was worth her annual salary. Jesus recognized it as a true gift of love. I have since realized that people in higher statuses of life need gifts of extravagance and love just as much as the poor. Some people go through horrible things in life no matter what their finances look like. Jesus, the Son Of God could have had anything. He certainly did not need to be pampered by such extravagance. It was the heart of this woman He praised while others only thought of the action which could have been better spent on a more “worthy” cause. What a poor mentality. If you have been through something, say a friend has lost a loved one in their life and they are finally pulling through it, do something extravagant for them. Write a check that makes you feel uncomfortable. Give them an unexpected gift at an unexpected time.
