What Happens When You Break Open?

"While Jesus was in Bethany sitting at the table in the home of Simon the leper, a woman arrived with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made from pure nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Irritated, some who were there asked one another, "Why was the perfume wasted like this?" Mark 14:3-4

On a day to day basis I am broken open. My family is so blessed and well taken care of here in Honduras, yet the typical struggles of acculturation still plague me from time to time (fleeting thoughts of homesickness, times of uncomfortably, sickness, loneliness, struggling to raise Elijah without the support of family nearby). Just like the alabaster jar, made of rock, so my body, made of earth, breaks from time to time.

As I am breaking open, those around me get to sense what is inside those deep places of my heart and mind. I am afraid to admit that those deep places do not smell so good; I do not emit the aroma of Christ most of the time. Instead, it is the scent of dark corridors that have never seen the light, where moths and fungus live.

In Saint John’s account of the breaking open of Mary’s earthen vessel, it says that “the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (12:2-4). Those lacking a kingdom perspective commented that it was a waste to pour such beautiful perfume on Jesus.

My prayer for my life is that as I continue break open I will begin to emit the aroma of a beautiful perfume, and hear the people say: “what a waste to pour that over Jesus.”

What happens when you are broken open?