Story of the Alabaster Jar
Are you broken, tired, sad, angry, confused, lost, stuck or just plain joyless? Well I have a story for you that may help.
Many of us have heard this story told in some form or another, maybe in a song, maybe as a bedtime story, maybe in church as lesson or a sermon. Perhaps an object lesson as a child.
It is one that is so powerful, so impactful to our understanding of the different facets of the human condition: shame, hope, forgiveness, joy peace, love and freedom that it has an account written in all four Gospels of the Bible.
Here is my favorite account from Luke Chapter 7:36-43
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,and the other fifty.
42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Debt and forgiveness. Two extremely vital elements to healing and being restored from trauma.
As I read this story and imagine the kind of love and devotion this woman displayed as act of gratefulness for freedom from trauma and shame she'd been in bondage to for what may have felt like a lifetime.
Now living from a heart of of peace, joy, wholeness and dare I say courage to do this in the presence of others who "knew her when"; her gift, her response was the act of pouring out all her love from that beautiful but broken Alabaster Jar.
This reminds me of our lives as women walking through the trauma, pain, disappointment and heartache...we are broken yet beautiful. But restoration, peace, joy and wholeness is not only possible, it is waiting for me and for you...even now in this moment.
This blog is about discovering, uncovering those times, those "aha" paradigm shifts in our lives that bring us closer to wholeness.
My story and your story were meant to be an anchors for one another as we learn to walk out this journey back to wholeness together. I invite you to read and share your "Alabaster Jar Moments: a pathway to wholeness".
Let's go...