“Do not keep the alabaster box of your love and friendship sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier. The kind things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go.”
– George W. Childs (Leaves of Gold, pg. 34)
You may be familiar with the scene described in the Gospels where a woman breaks a vial containing expensive perfume and uses it to anoint Jesus (see Mark 14:3). It is a beautiful gesture of love, extravagantly poured out upon a person. Jesus was so moved by the act that he not only defended her from her critics, but went so far as to say, “wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her” (14:9).
If I had a luxurious container full of expensive oil, I might one day have to decide if I would break the container and use the oil in one prodigious act of appreciation. Since I have neither the luxurious container nor the expensive oil, it is a decision I will likely never make. While I might lack these particular items, there is something precious I do possess, something available each day to be shared. According to Childs’ word of wisdom, I have affirmations for friends and family, words that are of the greatest value when shared sooner rather than later.
The Bible says that “gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body” (Proverbs 16:24). Imagine what power we unleash by choosing to share words of kindness and affirmation. A downcast soul may be lifted from the pit by one person who speaks encouragement. The simple act of sharing kind words is so powerful that one can even feel refreshment in the body. If you have ever been on the receiving end of this kind of blessing, you know it doesn’t take much. It could be a simple word of acknowledgement or congratulations, or perhaps a compliment on something small. Greater still is the word that conveys the value you have in someone’s esteem. Words of grace can come in a wide variety of forms, but they all bring sweetness and life to the one who receives them.
What, then, does it cost me to open this alabaster vial of kindness? Not a thing. Precious perfume, once poured out, is spent and irrecoverable. In contrast, words of grace are like the widow’s oil from Elisha the prophet (2 Kings 4), far more than enough to satisfy every need. So let us not save these words of grace as if preserving them for a eulogy. Speak them now. Speak them often. Let them be the means of grace for someone today.
See you along the Winding Path.
The Winding Path 