Lost In the Prairies.....Found by God

When my daughter was 2 she decapitated one of our Wise Men from our Nativity set. I told her at that time that it was ok because they didn't bring any good gifts anyway. I mean could Mary really use myrrh and frankincense. What she needed was a stroller, diapers, soother....if you have kids you get my drift. I later learned what the 3 gifts actually represented when I did a study of Matthew in BSF.

This mornings devotional was Jesus being anointed in Bethany.

While 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.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages[a] and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.

"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I 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: 3-9 NIV

The people at this dinner questioned her choice of gift, just as I did the Wise Men's gift. However, have I really looked at my gifts to God with the same scrutiny I do others' gifts. Do you? What have I given to God that others' would assume unworthy or too much? And who am I to question another's gift?

When I think of this verse I always think of the song by CeCe Winans. We don't know the cost of another's alabaster box and we don't have the right to question the gift. We are called to give OUR best to God. That best may differ for each of us.