“… as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious …” (Mark 14:3).
This woman could have gotten a vase that would not have cost so much as those made of alabaster. She might have brought perfume that would have cost only fifty pence; this cost three hundred. As far as I can understand, her whole fortune was in it. She might have been more economical; but no – she got the very best box, and put in it the very best perfume, and poured it all out on the head of her Redeemer.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, the trouble is that we bring to Jesus too cheap a box. If we have one of alabaster and one of earthenware, we keep the first for ourselves and give the latter to Christ.
We owe Jesus the best of our time, the best of our talents, the best of everything. Is there an hour in the day when we are wider awake than any other, more capable of thought and feeling? Let us bring that to Christ. We are apt to take a few moments in the morning when we are getting awake or a few moments at night when we are getting asleep for Jesus; but if there be an hour in the day when we are most appreciative of God’s goodness and Christ’s pardon and Heaven’s joy, oh, that is the alabaster box to bring to Jesus.
We owe Christ the very best years of our lives. When the sight is the clearest, the hearing the acutest, the arm the strongest, the nerves the steadiest, the imagination the brightest, let us come to Jesus. Let us not wait until our joints are stiffened and the glow is gone out of our temperament and we arise in the morning as weary as when we lay down at night.