Be Thou My Vision

While doing a Bible study on David this week, I was led to the scripture in John 12 about Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointing the feet of Jesus. I’ve read that story so many times, but there was something that struck a chord with me this time that had not done so before. As the story goes Martha, the always busy other sister, is occupied serving the guests. Mary instead chooses another alternative. She took a pint of pure nard, a very expensive perfume, and anointed the feet of Jesus. Then in pure love and devotion she wiped his feet with her hair. Can you just picture this scene? This sweet woman kneeling at the feet of Jesus and tenderly rubbing his tired feet with this precious perfume and then wiping them with her own hair. At this point in time, Jesus crucifixion is imminent, and Mary chooses to honor the man, Jesus, in the most special way she can. In complete humility she knelt at his feet and used up the precious perfume that would have been used to prepare his b...

Since coming to the Children’s Ranch, where I work, I am learning a whole new language. Who would have thought that within the same country, that the language could be so different. All of our boys come from troubled backgrounds. They are street-wise and tough, or so they think. They love trying to teach me their “language” and they love to hear my Tennessee sayings. We have great fun sharing how differently we communicate. Much of their local flavor speech is rooted in gang and street life. I’ve learned that “bumfy in the hood” means comfortable in your surroundings. “Scrap” means friend. “Dolo” means all alone. “Mad” means a lot of or to the extreme, like my truck is mad dirty or I want mad macaroni and cheese. All of this is completely new to me, but knowing their language helps me better understand them. It’s really pretty necessary to know what they are talking about. But now I find myself picking up some of their speech just be being around them so much. In this w...