Last fall, our daughter, Kelsey invited Tom and I to lunch. (Sweet girl!) It was a workday so I met them at a local restaurant where we sat outside and had the entire patio practically to ourselves. It was a beautiful day and since Kels doing random nice things is something we’ve come to expect as perfectly normal, we never even saw it coming.

After we had finished the meal, she pulled an envelope from her backpack, smiling ear to ear and proceeded to tell us this story….

Sometime before her accident (which would have been prior to 2013), she and her brother, Brett were talking about an anniversary gift to give us. They wanted it to be something special and one of them recalled how much it had meant to Grandma and Grandpa Warren when they went to the Holy Land, and they thought it would be great to be able to send us there too. (And I’m thinking….cool! DVD series?) But she continued to explain how for more than two years they set money aside and Brett had been giving her his portion up until her accident. (So, now my eyes are filling up….) She had been adding to it on her own each month since she had begun drawing disability, because they had early on decided that this gift money “wasn’t theirs” – it was Mom and Dad’s Holy Land trip money. (Tom and I are both welling up now, and I’m thinking that no matter how much money was in that envelope we would add whatever it would take and make the trip just to honor their incredible thoughtfulness.

Then Kelsey slid the envelope across the table towards me. I opened it and saw the cashier’s check inside, closed my eyes & passed it to Tom, and we both cried like babies. It was an enormous amount of money for two young adults to collect for anything, let alone to send their parents on a trip! They had done their research (meaning Kelsey had researched!) and the amount of money they saved is very nearly the price of most trips today!

Kelsey explained that it kept her feeling so close to her brother because it was something they had planned together – and we were absolutely awed to be receiving a gift from our kids – both of them – 5 years after he’d been gone! None of us will forget that moment….when their act of selflessness brought us all together again. It was a precious gift….and a costly one….but it was given freely out of love. <3

Jesus was enjoying a meal with his “family”, too….his chosen family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus at their home in Bethany. There may have been others, because the Gospel-writer, John tells us a dinner was being given in Jesus’ honor. Not too long before, Lazarus had been raised from the dead and don’t you wonder what those dinner conversations were like!? Then at some point, most likely at the conclusion of the meal, Mary bends down at the feet of Jesus and takes out a container of very expensive spicey perfume and does the unthinkable….she begins to pour it like water on Jesus’ feet and then dries his feet using her own hair. It was beyond extravagant – most calculate it would have taken a full year’s wages to purchase that much of the expensive liquid, and she was chided by Judas for using it all on Jesus and not selling it to give to the poor. But Jesus told him to leave her alone (love it when Jesus has our back!) because “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.” ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” John 12:7,8

Extravagant gifts offered from extravagant love. These are things worth thinking about as we begin the final week of Jesus’s life. How do we respond to such love? I think we receive it….and we offer it to others in the ways that we can.

When Tom and I take that trip, each and every moment will be accompanied by the memory of this precious gift that was given to us from our children….they’ll be there with us in spirit, and one of the places we will definitely visit is Bethany, the place where somewhere still lingers the sweet scent of perfume that Mary poured out for Jesus.

And then we’ll visit the other sites and remember the ultimate outpouring of sacrifice and unimaginable love that was offered to us from that same Jesus.

Precious days ahead, friends. Let’s keep our hearts open as we take them one step at a time….

Extravagantly loved with you,

Shellie ♥

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Nobody Loves Me Like You (Chris Tomlin)