Waiting at Lord's feet and giving all of ourselves

Everything about the way Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, worshipped and knew the Lord makes me want to worship and know him like that.

The first time we get to eavesdrop on Mary and Jesus is in Luke 10:38-42, when Jesus stays at her and her siblings' house. The only thing Mary does in these verses is sit at the feet of Jesus to listen to him.

She doesn't get caught up in her day-to-day life and miss out on just being with this man who is so radically different from anyone she's ever met. She sets aside her own schedule and makes Jesus her priority. Just being with him changes her heart to love in a deeper way than she ever knew was possible as she realizes the depth of his love for her.

I think Mary's heart must have been changed by Jesus that first day because of the things she does when we next see her interacting with Jesus in John 11:1-45. Her brother has just died, and she is grieving.

I find it so interesting that Mary stays in the house when Jesus first arrives there. Whatever the reason, when Martha says Jesus wants to see her, she hurries to where he's waiting for her, falls at his feet, and blurts out what's foremost in her mind: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"

She doesn't try to make it sound nice or pretty. She's weeping and she lets all her confusion hang in the air between them. This line holds so much honesty, accusation, grief and gorgeous faith. She completely abandons herself to the Lord, seeking him to take care of her. And that's when Jesus cries.

In John 12:1-8, Jesus has completely captured Mary's heart. She has seen that he is faithful to her, that he is trustworthy, that he loves her. I wonder when the idea of breaking the pint of expensive perfume over Jesus' feet to wash them with her hair entered her mind. Her love for Jesus, because of his love for her, must have so completely taken hold of her that she couldn't refrain from giving him her most valuable possession.

Judas thinks it's foolish, and I bet there were a couple other people in the room wondering what in the world this girl was doing, but Jesus cherishes it. He understands what she's given him, which also fits into the bigger picture of preparing him for his burial.

Mary: an ordinary girl that let Jesus' friendship and love consume her heart and life. A woman after the Lord's very heart who worshipped Jesus with everything she was, just by being fully present to him and by being herself. She didn't hold back. She worshipped Jesus by doing crazy things unique to her heart. No one else understood it. She didn't care -- she did it anyway, out of a natural response to how much Jesus loved her.

We can be ourselves with the Lord like that, too. He's waiting for you and for me to come sit at his feet, to listen and freely give him all of ourselves because he is crazy in love with us.

Mia Pohlman is a Perryville, Mo., native studying at Truman State University. She loves performing, God and the color purple -- not necessarily in that order.