Jesus was at Bethany when a woman poured a costly perfume on His head. Some hypocrites saw it as a waste of resources because they felt the ointment could have been sold for a great price and the returns given to the poor. Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said in Mark 14:6-7:
…Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

It is shocking that some people considered what this lady did for her Maker as waste. To their surprise, Jesus said she would forever be remembered for that singular act as she was doing it in honour of His eventual burial. There are many lessons you can learn from this. One, we should prepare our aged parents for their funerals long before they die. We can do this by taking good care of them while they are alive. This is because whatever fortune we spend at their funeral is mere exercise in futility. The dead do not appreciate golden caskets, neither do they eat delicacies. Two, the law of harvest will come to play. If we take care of our aged, all other things being equal, the younger generation would take care of us too.

Another lesson we can draw from this story is that whatever we do for God is not only appreciated now, it’s kept in divine memory. We see this in Acts 10:4. What this woman did during the Passion Week over 2,000 years ago is still being talked about today in the 21st century. Jesus said the good deed of this woman shall be spoken of wherever and whenever the gospel would be preached and true to His word, it is happening. We must also learn not to listen to what people say whenever we are moved by the Holy Spirit to do something for God. We should be like Paul who taught us not to confer with flesh and blood before preaching the gospel Galatians 1:16.

Don’t wait until your aged ones have passed on before celebrating them; the dead cannot appreciate any celebration. Take care of them while they are still alive, show your gratitude regularly and shower them with love continually. When you do this, they will bless you and you would be blessed indeed.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.