The woman with the alabaster flask. That was an act of absolute adoration. So absolute that it made everyone except Christ uncomfortable.
"But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, 'Why was this ointment thus wasted? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.' And they reproached her." Mark 14: 4-5.
Christ's response is one of grace, mercy, and acceptance. "Let her alone! Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me." Mark 14: 6.
He sees the beauty in the moment. He accepts her gifts as an anointing before he is buried. She gives whole-heartedly. He loves her. She becomes known because of her deed, her act of adoration, the anointing of our Christ before his burial.
I pray God that I might do the same. Can I? She does this before the Great Sacrifice.
Love has seen the truth. It enhances and names the truth. It is rare and rich. It is beauty.
She has become one known for one act of simple beauty. And she held fast to our Lord and Savior.
How do I hold fast to Christ?
Lay out my hands. Lay it out flat.
Lord, take me, use me, my will, my body, me.
And in that small, dented moment of my hands held out I feel God's grace, his pulse over me.