Hi, friends. This is Elisa Morgan from our Daily Bread, and I have the privilege of sharing

today's devotional encouragement with you that I titled She Did What She Could.

She loaded the plastic container of cupcakes onto the conveyor belt, sending it toward the cashier.

Next came the birthday card and various bags of chips.

Hair escaped from her ponytail, crowning her fatigued forehead.

Her toddler clamored for attention.

The clerk announced the total, and the mom's face fell.

Oh, I guess I'll have to put something back.

But these are for her party, she sighed, glancing regretfully at her child.

Standing behind her in the line, another customer recognized such pain.

Jesus' words to Mary of Bethany echoed in her mind, she did what she could,

Mark 14, verse 8. After anointing him with a bottle of expensive nard before his death and burial,

Mary was ridiculed by the disciples. Jesus corrected his followers by celebrating what she had done. He didn't say

she did all she could, but rather she did what she could. The lavish cost of the perfume wasn't his

point. It was Mary's investment of her love in action that mattered.

A relationship with Jesus results in a response.

In that moment, before the mom could object,

the second customer leaned forward and inserted her credit card into the reader,

paying for the purchase.

It wasn't a large expense, and she had extra funds that month.

But to that mom, it was everything. A gesture of pure love poured out in her moment of need.

Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from Mark, chapter 14, verses 3 through 9.

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