Happiness from the Alabaster Box / Mrs Reese Fowler

Mrs Reese Fowler

Pastor's Wife

Columbus, OH

 

 

 Happiness from the Alabaster Box

By Reese Fowler

Let’s talk about being happy. When I was a little girl my parents bought me a pink Barbie bicycle for my 8th birthday and that made me happy. Then I became a teenager, and my parents gave me some money.  I went to the mall with my friends and bought a new dress and that made me happy. When I got married my husband and I bought a house and that made me happy. Then we had kids and that made me happy. On and on things were making me happy, but I learned over time that all these things brought me temporary happiness.

There is nothing in this world that can bring you joy or happiness. Your happiness shouldn’t be based on things.

 I believe that a Christian’s happiness is based on their relationship with Jesus Christ and totally surrendering their entire being everyday to God.

I came across these Bible verses a few months ago and realized what God was trying to teach me from the alabaster box. 

Mark 14:3-6  And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious, and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of ointment made? For it might have been sold for more

than 300 pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone, why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. 

Lessons learned:

1. Jewish parents will give their daughter an alabaster box filled with spikenard oil when she comes of age. Then when she is married and becomes a bride, she will bring her alabaster box as her dowry (her families’ worth/value) on the night of her consummation/honeymoon. She pours it out on her husband’s feet. This symbolizes complete devotion, submission, and obedience to her husband. 

The lady in the Bible broke the box so that it couldn’t ever be used for anyone or anything else. It symbolized her complete love and devotion to Jesus. We need to offer ourselves and be completely broken to God every day.

2.  A hand carved alabaster box filled with spikenard oil can cost anywhere from $300-$3000.

We are of great value to God!

3. Alabaster is a mineral/rock made up of fine grained gypsum. It is mostly made of white marble which represented purity. The more expensive alabaster boxes

can be set in a window sill and the light will shine through it. 

When we become a child of God, He washes our sins away and makes us white as snow. We can also let God’s Light shine through us.

So what does the alabaster box have to do with being happy? Everything!

When we give Jesus all of us, total surrender, then we can only be one way, Happy!

Dear Father,

Today, I choose to be happy. Right now, I offer my alabaster box to You. I break myself open and surrender all of me. You say that I’m precious in Your sight, so I pour out my precious oil to You. Please take all of me, my stubbornness, my selfishness, my goals, my attitude. Please take all of me. I am Yours. Please control my words and actions. Help me to be a servant to others and exemplify You in everything I do. Amen