1/6/12 - Making a Gift to God

Matthew 26:6-12

Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of costly perfumed oil, and poured it on his head while he was reclining at table.
When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and said, "Why this waste?
It could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor."
Since Jesus knew this, he said to them, "Why do you make trouble for the woman? She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me.
In pouring this perfumed oil upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of, in memory of her."

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One thing that touches me about this passage is how receptive Christ is to the gift that the woman gives to him. She brought something to him that she treasured, and she offered it to Him. He accepted it gratefully, even though others thought that the gift might be wasteful, and that the gift could have been used for better purposes.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to offer my day to God. I can say the words, but I struggle with truly putting it into practice. I'd like to get to the point where I can approach my day as a gift that I can make to the Lord. The gift won't be perfect. There will be lots of junk in it, both good and bad. But if I can begin to approach the day's events as a process of building something I can give to the divine creator, and have that in my mind as I go about my day, I'm sure the day will be more fruitful, and that I might make a gift suitable for Christ.

Need a heaping spoonful of grace to do that, though!