by Viola Walden

Sixty dollars’ worth of perfume wasted! It wasn’t stolen or spilled: simply poured on the head of a Man. Bystanders turned on the woman indignantly. “Why this waste?” they demanded. “It could have been sold and the money given to the poor.”

Love rarely makes sense to those not in love. An act of self-sacrifice appears foolish to the selfish person.

Even when the disciples upbraided the woman for anointing Jesus with her costly perfume, they saw neither her love nor her sacrifice. To them, it was a stupid, wasteful business. But to our blessed Lord it was an act of such love that it would be told in the Gospel from then on. She had done for Him the only thing she could do.

Dear one, have you, have I, ever pulled the stopper from the bottle of our most precious perfume and poured it on our Lord? Or do we decide there is a more worthy cause? Can there be a more worthy cause than the dear Lord Jesus Himself?

Have we done for the Lord Jesus all that is in our power to do? Do we love Him out of an overflowing heart?

What matters if some or many well-meaning people rebuke us and tell us we are crazy. Don’t listen to their “how wasteful!” cry.

Let us pray to be more like the woman who “wasted” her expensive perfume on the Lord Jesus. To love Him and to be loved by Him is all that matters.