Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly  and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.  (John 12:3)

Mary came not to hear a sermon although the first of teachers was there; not to sit at His feet and hear His word. She came not to make her requests known to Him; time was when in deepest submission to His will she had fallen at His feet, saying, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (Jn. 11:32). She came not to meet the saints though precious saints were there, fellowship with them was blessed, but that was not her object now. She came not after the weariness of a week's battling with the world to be refreshed from Him, though like every saint she had learned the trials of the wilderness and knew the blessed springs of refreshment in Him.

But she came at the moment when the world was expressing deepest hatred of Him, to pour out the most valuable thing she had on earth, upon the Person whose love had made her heart captive and absorbed her affections. "Jesus only" filled her soul; her heart beat true to Him, and she "anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair." Adoration, homage, worship, blessing was her thought in honour of the One who was all in all to her. Surely such  worship refreshed Him! The unspiritual might murmur, but He upheld her cause and appreciated the grateful tribute of a heart that knew His worth and preciousness.

Thus a lasting record is preserved of what worship really is! If every eye were on the Lord alone, every heart true to Him, each determined to see "no man save Jesus only," what full praise there would be. Not with alabaster boxes now, but from our bodies, filled with the Holy Spirit, a stream of thanksgiving and highest worship would ascend in honour of that blessed One. Be it ours thus to worship Him in Sprit and in truth!

D.T. Griiston