Hello, thank you so much for joining me today for Give Him 15.

Thank you also for your prayers during the past couple of days.

Cece and her family are doing well, and her precious mother was honored well in her memorial and celebration service.

And the title of our post today is

the alabaster box.

During the week of Christ's passion,

we are told the story of a woman

anointing Christ's head and feet

with very expensive ointment. Mark 14 and John 12.

Mark 14, starting at verse 3, that version I will read to you now from the Passion Translation.

Now, Jesus was in Bethany, in the home of Simon, a man Jesus had healed of leprosy.

And as he was reclining at the table, a woman came into the house with an alabaster flask filled with the highest quality of fragrant and expensive oil.

She came to Jesus and with a gesture of extreme devotion. She broke the flask and poured out the precious oil over his head. John's gospel tells us

she also poured it on his feet. But some were highly indignant when they

saw this. And they complained to one another, saying, what a total waste. It could have been sold for a

great sum. The money could have benefited the poor. So they scolded her

harshly. Jesus said to them, leave her alone. Why are you so critical of this woman? She has honored me

with this beautiful act of kindness. You'll always have the poor, whom you can help whenever you want,

but you won't always have me.

When she poured the fragrant oil over me,

she was preparing my body in advance of my burial.

She has done all that she could to honor me.

...