I love the beautiful intimacy in that encounter.  I love Jesus’ willingness to enter the realm of what is fully female and heal and honor a single, human woman.  In this encounter I find the assurance that in my times of distress, shame, or desperate need I will be similarly singled out and loved.  

The third story is recorded in Luke 10:38-42.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to him and asked,” Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.” 

For most of us, the external forces in our lives call us to be Marthas.  And of course, there is much to do.  We want to serve, to give, to make a difference.

But there is a time to stop our giving, a time to receive.  A time to admit how desperately we need Jesus to comfort us, touch us, love us.  Mary realized that, so she sat down and let him minister to her. 

Can you imagine what it was like to be ministered to by this Holy, Perfect, Wise, Tender Man?   I don’t know if Mary had a husband; it doesn’t appear she did at that point.  But even if she did, there’s no way he could have touched her soul as deeply as Jesus did—this man who could see her every unshed tear and hear each unspoken word—this man who offered her all the time in the world—who seemed to say, “It’s your turn now.  Your turn to be served.  Your turn to rest, receive, take in, full up.”  I don’t know a person who doesn’t need to hear that invitation, which is why I turn to it again and again.  

I believe the greatest challenge of our lives is learning to let God love us.  I believe God is trying to embrace us and heal us and transform us with Love constantly, but too many of us don’t know how to receive it, so we move from birth to death with our most fundamental need unmet. 

If Christianity were just a good philosophy to live by, there would be great value in it, but nothing to truly and mysteriously touch our souls.  But we claim that Christianity is about a relationship with a living Person. 

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