The Perfume Bottle

I commuted to college every day.
I had wonderful friends that lived on campus.
One special friend went to grade school, high school, and college with me.
I was always so grateful to her that I could stay in her dorm room between classes.

Two other girls lived across the hall and we all became close friends.
I was always included even though I missed much of the college life on campus.
I worked and went to school, so my time was extremely full.
I was the queen of multitasking, it seemed; which we all had to be back then.

I learned a thing or two about fashion from the two girls who lived across the hall.
I learned a thing or two about makeup and fragrances.
Some things I incorporated into my own personal repertoire.
Some things I dismissed because they were just not me.

Now I wear one perfume exclusively.
Back then; I wore many different scents, depending on my mood.
One fragrance was definitely a evening fragrance and a bit more expensive.
We all loved it; we all could not afford it.

After Christmas break one year, one of the girls from across the hall had the perfume.
She received it as a gift and it smelled wonderful.
We used to go to the only store near campus that carried the perfume and try the testers.
That meant going to the perfume counter to spray perfume on your wrist before buying it.

We all walked out of the store, not buying any perfume but smelling wonderful.
After months of usage, the girl who got the perfume as a gift was annoyed.
It doesn’t work. The sprayer doesn’t work any more, she exclaimed holding up the bottle.
Sure enough, there was quite a lot of perfume left, but the sprayer had cracked.

It was frustrating to see all this expensive perfume in the bottle but unable to use it.
She decided to write a letter to the company.
She laid out her frustrations and her disappointment.
It was a well-drafted letter; yet we all secretly thought she was wasting her time.

I can still remember the day she proudly held a box in her hand.
The wrapping had been ripped open and lying on her bed.
She held a box of the expensive perfume in her hand.
They sent me a new bottle, she said with the confidence she had from the beginning.

Sure enough, there was a bottle of the expensive perfume.
It was the same size as the one she received as a gift.
It had a sprayer that worked.

Of course, the great temptation was for others to write letters to the company as well.
No one did, of course…but it was tempting.
I have never forgotten her assertiveness and her ability to lay out the problem.
I have never forgotten her surety in getting an answer.

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus. and kill Him. “But not during the feast,” they said, “or the people may riot.” While He was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of a man  known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for My burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 4:1-9)

The perfume was most likely a family heirloom passed down from mother to daughter.
An alabaster jar was used to preserve the scent and keep the perfume cool.
There was no sprayer on this bottle of perfume.
There was no way to get the perfume out of the jar, unless you broke it.

Jesus was worth more to her than any precious oil.
Jesus was worth more than the sacrifice of the precious heirloom.
The perfume, though expensive, was used once and then it was gone.
This woman knew that the gift Jesus offered to her was an eternal gift.

She broke open her alabaster jar of perfume because Jesus’ body would be broken for her.
She gave away something precious to gain something priceless.
The perfume that permeated the room after she anointed Jesus wafted in the air.
The scent remained for quite a while.

Some scoffed.
Some complained about her wastefulness.
Jesus praised her.
Jesus promised that whenever the Gospel was preached, she would be remembered.

We still talk about this woman, just as Jesus said we would.
We talk about her because of her jar of perfume.
We talk about her because of what she did for Jesus.
The scent of her sacrifice still lingers in the air.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
(Jim Elliot 1927-1956)