Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
A woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.”
—Luke 7.37-39
There are those who have it all together,
but you are not among them.
Maybe you’ve been told, or maybe
you simply know. Something in you
keeps failing. Something in you
can’t stop crying. In a language
you don’t understand. Maybe, worst of all,
you think you’re fine, but you’re not.
But there is definitely something wrong with you.
And you come to Jesus like this crazy woman
who clearly does not know how to come to Jesus,
raw and naked and a little off,
and you give him your raw, naked, way-off feelings,
your flimsy prayer, your strung-together faith,
your totally inappropriate self—
and he stops, and in the long silence
he leaves the others to their nice dinners,
their keys to cities and all that glory and praise.
He’s more in love with broken hearts.
Eyes closed, faint smile, he gives you this gift:
that you don’t need anything at all,
that you have, and are, something delightful to offer,
which he receives and loves and holds to his heart
the rest of his suffering days.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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