Tag: example

Meet Mary of Bethany

John Forte's "Annointing His Feet #2" can be found here.
John Forte’s “Annointing His Feet #2” can be found here.

I know, I know. Last week I was confessing that there were too many Marys in the Bible to keep them all straight and yet, here I go introducing another. Stick with me, though.

Mary of Bethany is someone I’ve known all of my life, but I felt like I had more in common with her sister than I did with her. Maybe its because I have this thing about feet and she always seemed to be about the feet. I don’t know. With half-hearted enthusiasm, I reached out to Mary of Bethany earlier this year and was surprised to find that we not only connected in a couple of ways, but she has since become a woman I deeply admire and want to be like.

You see, I’ve always had this prejudice where Mary was concerned, this judgment of her as the lazy sister, leaving her sister to pick up the slack while she did her own thing. The more time I spent with Mary, however, and the more attentive to her testimony I became, the more I saw her in a new light – as an example of a female disciple. Jesus called His male disciples to leave their work and follow Him. I saw clearly for the first time that this was what Mary was doing, as well. I became ashamed at how I had always viewed her, leaving all the work to her poor, burdened, responsible sister, Martha, when what she was actually doing was following Him, just as His male disciples were. And she was praised for her choice.

If you’ve held off on getting to know Mary of Bethany, let this be the week you decide to invest in that relationship. She’s not your average Mary. And she is about so much more than just feet.

Click here to meet my new friend, Mary of Bethany.








 

Meet Bathsheba

"Bath-Sheba" by quilt artist Dolores Fegan. See more of her Women of the Bible quilts here.
“Bath-Sheba” by quilt artist Dolores Fegan. See more of her Women of the Bible quilts here.

Like some of you, I’ve heard of Bathsheba most of my life. It’s hard not to, having grown up in the church. Her name was mentioned now and again in association with the great King David, but it was always in passing.

When I had the opportunity to meet and spend time with her last summer, I was admittedly lukewarm. And I confess that she was kind of hard to get to know. It took more work to peel back the layers than all of the other ladies I’d gotten to know. She proved less transparent than Rahab, less of a role-model than Deborah, less of a leader than Miriam. My diligence, however, paid off and I was rewarded to find that I connected in so many ways with this woman renown for her beauty:

  • as a fellow mother of five;
  • as a parent that has known the deep grief of burying a child;
  • as a woman desired (thanks to my husband!);
  • as a mom with deep desires to see her grown children realize their full potential (and occasionally messes up by meddling in their affairs);
  • as someone who looks at herself soberly; and
  • as a {repentant} sinner.

It was good to see that I shared these connections with Bathsheba because she is one of those women that are known more for her failures than for her successes. That’s unfortunate, too, because most of my own growth as a follower of God has occurred in the wake of my own {colossal} failures and I sensed the same rang true for Bathsheba as she shared her story with me. As she shared, I was intrigued by her ability not to become mired to her failures because I tend to get stuck in the moments. I obsess about every detail and find it very difficult to crawl out of those moments and move forward.

Bathsheba doesn’t deny that her sin altered the course of her life, or that people were hurt by her choices. They were, and probably none more than her first husband, Uriah. That moment of failure, however, wasn’t wasted. She grew from having endured the hardship of widowhood, guilt and even the death of her son. I think she learned from her mistakes. And God, in seeing that, used her to bless the known world (through her son, King Solomon, in her lifetime), and the entire world (through Jesus Christ, her direct descendant).

Bathsheba is an encouragement to me to live in light of Paul’s words to the New Testament believers in Philippi –

“…forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God.” (Phil. 3:13-14 NET)

I invite you to make your own connections with my new friend, Bathsheba, by going here.