She
has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the
burying.
- Mark 14:8
This
was a wonderful commendation to come from the lips of the Christ. Mary could not
have done better than this if she had been a thousand times as gifted. We get
two lessons. One is that all Christ wants is what we have ability and
opportunity to do. He asks no impossibilities. The poorest things, the smallest
offerings, are acceptable if they are really our best in the
circumstances.
A
child in a mission school offered her teacher a handful of weeds and grasses,
wilted and soiled at that, which she called a bouquet. Did the teacher refuse
the gift, and criticize the poor withered weeds? No, she accepted them with as
sincere gratitude and as many thanks as if some wealthy friend had offered her
an elegant bouquet of flowers. The child did what she could; and the teacher
looking behind the gift saw the love in the little heart, and that transfigured
her poor gift. So it is that Christ accepts our poorest work, or our homeliest
offering, if it is our best
But
the lesson has another side. “She did what she could.” It is this, then,
that pleases Christ. Are we doing what we could do? Do we always bring to Him
our very best gifts? Do we never put Him off with the faded flowers, keeping the
fresh and fragrant ones for ourselves? Do we do for Him our very best work? Are
we faithful?
If
we are only doing half what we might, we cannot take the comfort of this
commendation. The widow's mites were very acceptable coming from her, because
they were all she had; but they would not have elicited any such commendation if
one of the rich men had given them. A little child's ministry is very beautiful
for a child, but it would not be as fitting in the father or mother. We must
really do the very best we can if we would have this
commendation.