Jen Russum

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Flowers Fade Friday: Beautiful Things

Sometimes
life can seem so mundane, right? Another dinner to cook. Another load of
laundry.

Sometimes it
seems like life should be more exciting. If only I could redecorate my house
and try every craft and recipe I’ve pinned on Pinterest…
If only all
my dinner parties could look like the styled photo shoots on Style Me Pretty.

Even in the
spiritual realm, things seem pretty simple sometimes. Here’s my tithe, Lord. My
measly 10%. These few hundred dollars I give to you. How cool would it be to
give thousands? Or to fund some big church project? Here I am, Lord. Another
week at Bible study. Another morning spent in prayer and I only got distracted
once… or maybe twice.
But these
things, if done for God’s glory, are not mundane.

They are beautiful.
There was a
lady in the Bible who did a very simple thing. It is a little weird by our
social standards, but it was simple nonetheless.
A woman came
to Jesus. And she bowed herself before him. And she took perfume that she had
saved, and maybe even saved up to buy… and she broke it over his head. To
worship him.
While it IS
a big deal that she got to worship Jesus face to face, the fact that she
anointed him with some perfume is not that big of a deal. It’s like giving a
few hundred dollars to the church. Other disciples of Jesus did far more
spectacular things. They raised the dead and healed the sick and spread the
Gospel and started the church and some of them were even martyred in Jesus’
name.
And yet
Jesus called this woman’s act, this act of anointing him with perfume,
BEAUTIFUL. While some of the men sitting there critiqued this woman for
“wasting” the perfume, Jesus defended her by saying “She has done a beautiful
thing to me.”
And then he
said something else, something surprising and important…
“And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed
in the whole world, 
what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
{Mark 14:9}
And Jesus
was right. Her story was recorded in the Bible. And even today we celebrate the
humble, nameless woman who poured her perfume on Jesus.
And this is
how it is with all the mundane tasks that seem to fill our day. The hymn sung
quietly as you unload the dishwasher. When you pause from sending emails to
snuggle your child for a minute or give your husband a kiss. When you
return to those emails and try to get back to people in a timely manner. When
your Pinterest recipe fails miserably, and you laugh and throw a freezer pizza
in the oven to feed your family.
All these
small things, done in God’s name for His glory, are acts of worship. As we live
in obedience, loving others well and being good stewards of the homes and
closets and pantries God has given us, we bring glory to the Lord. When we
serve our church and look for ways to be generous, we are worshiping God.
And someday
in heaven, we will toast the woman who poured her perfume on Jesus. And we will
sit around and tell of other mundane acts that will be seen as glorious in the heavenly realm… stories of bathrooms cleaned and casseroles prepared for the awesome name of Christ.

So instead
of wishing for a more glamorous, perfect life, instead of coveting more
creativity or money or time… worship God with what He has given you today. Because
even the smallest acts, a fresh bouquet of flowers given to a neighbor or worship
music echoing through the house as you clean, can be beautiful things that
bring honor to God.
*Linking up with Casey Leigh*

Comments

  1. AMEN! I am so glad I read this post first this morning!

    I just read a great quote about hymns and have been cranking them up loud when the day feels too heavy or hurried for me. It is amazing what putting a little (or a lot) of God in your attitude can do for the entire family!

    This life is mine and it is good!

  3. Hey Jen! Thanks for writing this! It's so great that all we do can be offered up as worship!

    I thought you might enjoy knowing more about the perfume the woman gives – it was in an alabaster jar which on it's own was very expensive. Perfume was already expensive in that time because it was made completely naturally (no chemicals like most of our perfumes are today), and the spikenard perfume inside her jar cost about a year's worth of wages and may have even been her dowry for marriage!

    It's so incredible to see what she was giving up, and how much it blessed Jesus, and just like you said, we still know of her today. I hope to be a woman of faith like her!

    Thank you so much for your blog! I look forward to reading it everyday!

    Sara
    http://www.greatwidenowhere.blogspot.com