Perfume and Tears

When reading the all too familiar story of Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman passage of Luke 7:36-50, God put a completely new meaning on my heart. The word is speaking of a woman who "had lived a sinful life." (guilty, that means me too). This woman stood at the feet of Jesus with her Alabaster Jar. The Alabaster Jar represents something a woman would put her most valuable perfume in. The symbolism is that the jar represents the one thing women valued the most both in cost and in meaning. Perfume was a very highly respected item by women and it wasn't cheap, but very costly. Not only did the woman bring Jesus her Alabaster Jar of perfume but she also wept at his feet. Tears- the powerful sign of pain, suffering, shame, disappointment, fear, or regret. Drops that detailed so much of her "sinful life." She washes Jesus' feet with both the perfume and the tears. She brings both the most valuable thing in her life and the hardest things in her life and sets them both at the feet of Jesus. The jar that could have possibly been the only thing in her life worth any value and the tears that came from anything less than what she should have valued. She brings them both. The Lord wants us to bring both as well. He wants us to bring the bad and the good, the valuable, and the crap. He wants what we do well and what we can't. He wants our successes and our failures. He wants it ALL. What better place to bring it ALL than at the foot of our Savior?