John 12

John 12 has really been one of my favorite chapters so far! I really loved reading this. The Bible is filled with so many different types of descriptive words and so much imagery that it really is enjoyable to read for me! I am going to begin with the part where Mary washed Jesus's feet with the perfume and dried them with her hair. Now for us, this may be just a LITTTTTLE bit weird! I know I would be weirded out if anybody besides the guy who gives me a pedicure touched my feet and tried to wash them! But Jesus knew what Mary was doing and why she was doing it. I cannot even begin to imagine how it must have felt to be kneeling at the feet of our savior and touching his feet! Washing his feet! Drying his feet off! Now during this time, a women's glory was her hair. Women took pride in their hair and that's what made them beautiful. We see many verses in the Old Testament about women not cutting their hair off. So for Mary to dry a mans nasty feet with her hair was a huge act of humility. Once this happened, how was she treated for it? She was ridiculed and embarrassed by Judas, who was only speaking out of anger and selfishness. He didn't care about the poor. All he cared about was filling his money bag with money.

I think that sometimes we all tend to act like Judas. We see people doing good things for others and then we become offended. We are offended for more reasons than one.
We don't like the fact that someone else has "one-upped" is.
We don't want anyone to look better than us! So the Pinterest mom who has it all together and took the freshly-baked, made from scratch casserole to the church dinner quickly becomes the source of the gossip of all the ladies. "Who does she think she is? Betty Crocker?" "Well here comes the over achiever again!" These are all comments that we are guilty of making when we are jealous that someone thought about something before we did. But that's our human nature! It is our responsibility to build each other up and not tear each other down. Next time you see someone doing something nice, don't ridicule them...verbally or mentally. Just tell them thank you and that you appreciate them. These are the people who are leading by example. Are you a Judas? Or will you rise to the occasion and become a better man/woman because of you allowing God to change the negativity in your heart so that you can finally accept people for who/what they are. Flawed individuals just like you and me! God bless you all! Have a nice night.