Job 37:14-16 Listen to this, Job. Stop and consider God’s wonders. Do you know how God directs his clouds or makes their lightning flash? Do you understand how the clouds float, those wondrous works of him who has perfect knowledge?

Lets take a gander at the sky for a moment. Cloudy days are synonymous with springtime.  They help the sun hide from us a little longer prolonging her radiant return come summer. There are many types of clouds. Clouds can bring rest and respite from heat.  They can shower rain, snow or hail (sometimes all at once). Clouds can light up the sky with their lightning and demand your attention with their thunder.

Pay attention to the action words from Job 37:14 Listen. Stop. Consider.  

Listen.The command to listen expects us to dial in to what important message is coming next.  Listening makes us slow down, quiet ourselves, and position us for what we are to be listening to. Listening makes us tune our ear to hear the voice that is speaking to us.  

Stop. Stopping compels us to cease and desist from our comings and goings. Stopping our actions, movement, and direction, submits the rest of our physical body to join our ears in listening.  So often we “multitask” and don’t heed this advice to stop and therefore miss the message sometimes entirely.

Consider. Considering takes us beyond the physical and leads us to the mindful and thoughtful.  Considering is the doorway to the spiritual. Now that we have listened and stopped, what are we supposed to be considering? The answer here in Job is God’s wonders. He uses the clouds to do just that. When we look at the springtime cloudy skies they are asking us to consider God’s wonders.  

We learn to ask ourselves “Do you know how God directs the clouds?” “Do you know how God makes them flash with brilliant lightning?” My favorite one is “Do you understand how the clouds float?” It makes me laugh at its simplicity, but I love how the clouds make me ponder the wondrous works of him who has perfect knowledge.

Isaiah 31:5

⁵ Like hovering birds, so the Lord of Hosts will protect Jerusalem—by protecting it, He will rescue it, by sparing it, He will deliver it.

Oh wow. I just spent the morning arguing with someone about what is best for my son.  Nothing gets a momma more worked up than defending and protecting their kiddo does it?

Fast forward to my lunchtime walk in the sun.  I had just gotten home from the post office to pick up our batch of chicken and pheasant chicks. It’s a balmy 53 degrees on this April spring morning and the sun is unashamedly showing its beautiful face. It compels me to brave the brisk air and take a quiet stroll around our farm pond.

My trusty sidekick Brandy joins me and as we are just a few steps into our journey we hear a warning shot bellowing from two Canadian geese. At first I think nothing of it since this pair has called our farm home in the spring for several years in a row and they are a usual sight.  They quickly turn and start swimming towards the opposite side of the pond away from us, yacking constantly as they swim.  I think to myself, what a racquet.  Way to ruin my peaceful stroll.  They persist.  I think, “Aren’t they used to seeing us around here just as much as we are of them?” I look up…they have now changed their direction and the fear in them has turned to fearlessness. They are now heading directly towards me.

Hmmmmm.  Sometimes I can be really slow.

Hmmmmm.  Sometimes I can be really slow.  That one goose in particular is literally yelling like a mad woman. It occurs to me that she has the ferociousness in her voice that of me defending my boy this morning.  That’s it! From one momma to another that was it!  She was telling me that although she was afraid of me, she was fearless when it came to defending her baby(ies).  To my relief I did an about turn in time for her to not take flight and attack me.  She didn’t however back down on swimming towards my direction as if to say “and stay out”!

Isn’t that just how God loves us and protects us?  I can see his gospel everywhere I look.  Creation itself is reminding me of His love for me.  In Romans it says that we are without excuse of not knowing God because creation itself reveals his attributes.

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen…

Today he reminded me and made it perfectly clear that His love for us is like that of our farms mother goose. Fearless, relentless, and protective in nature.

I tell you, her sins, and they are many, have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.  But the person who is forgiven little shows only little love. ~Luke 7:47

Loving Extravagantly.  I speak of Mary of Magdala. She is my favorite of all of Jesus disciples. The story of her encounter with the Lord is recorded in the bible.  It begins with her enduring the mundane of her everyday routine…I guess if there is such a thing when you are filled with seven devils. (Luke 8:2) Her heart is heavy, sadness weighs on her like bondage and often she has a hard time reaching her breath. She weeps, then wipes the tears from her face to appear presentable so she may continue in her trade of prostitution to provide for her needs.  She’s tired and although she is young, she feels old.  Her body is dry, her hair is coarse, and her lips are chapped from the sea salt air.  She longs to be beautiful, but doesn’t dare to hope because of her state of depravity and filth.

Although Mary laid eyes on Jesus for the first time that day, Jesus already knew who she was. Long before Mary was born, back before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Lord picked her to be a part of his bride.  He loved her.  He knew everything about her.  He knew the number of hairs on her head.  He knew she was a prostitute.  He knew the desperation to be clean that filled the caverns of her heart. He knew she was suicidal sometimes.  He knew who He created her to be.  He knew that he would wed His beloved someday, of which she was a part.  He knew the price he would pay to rescue her.

In a foreshadowing of the day when he would defeat death and remove all of Mary’s sins, he casts out the demons that possessed her.  He restored to her her health, her mind, her sanity, her hope, and left her to heal and rest from the traumatic restorative overhaul.

Following this exorcism, Jesus obliged the invite for dinner from a local man named Simon.  His heart was not as warm to Simon as it was to Mary.  Jesus does not recognize Simon as part of his future bride, but he dines with him in Simons home anyway.  The table is set and Simons other guests fill the house.  They are intrigued with the teacher named Jesus who was healing the sick and giving sight to their blind.  Although he is to be the guest of honor, Jesus is met with an unseen separation and he is altogether welcome and not welcome at the same time.

When does a disciple become a disciple?  When they make the choice to follow.  Thus begins Mary’s discipleship of Jesus Christ.  Uninvited, she crossed the threshold of Simons door.  Not acknowledging the silence that fell over the room, she quickened her pace as she approached Jesus.  Her face tightened and the back of her right hand raised and pressed her lips to physically hold back before bursting into heart wrenching tears as she fell to her knees at the feet of her Lord.  Overcome with gratitude for her new-found freedom, she groaned words that were hard even for her to understand. So she resorts to kissing Jesus feet.

Do you see her?  She’s crying so hard that she cannot speak.  She’s taking the position of a servant at the feet of her Lord.  Her tears are so many that she can wash him, which is symbolic of how He just washed her and foreshadowing of how He would wash her clean of her sins. In a room full of elite, appalled at her behavior, she didn’t even notice them. She poured perfume from an alabaster jar, unbound her hair and worshiped Jesus with it.

What an outrage!  She just used perfume purchased with whore money to anoint Jesus.  Unbinding her hair like a harlot and acting as if no one else was there.  This Jesus character must not be as holy as he thinks he is or he would be just as upset as the rest of the guests.

Jesus abruptly stops their thoughts by saying “Simon, I have something to tell you.” He went on to tell this Pharisee and company a parable about two people who owed debts.  One owed 500 denari and the other only 50.  The creditor was compelled to forgive both debts in full.  He asked Simon which of the debtors will love the creditor more for the forgiven loan.  Reluctantly Simon answers the one whose greater debt was paid. Jesus then rebuked Simon for not performing the customary washing of guests feet when he arrived, not greeting him with a kiss, and not anointing his head with oil. Softening the rebuke, Jesus retells the beautiful story of the extravagant love Mary has just demonstrated before them.

Do  you to see what just happened? Have you ever been wounded and vulnerable?  Embarrassed? Ever wanted someone to stand up for you or come to your defense? Jesus defended a woman in a patriarchal society in the presence of her mockers.  Women were the equivalent of cattle in that culture.  Don’t you love how Jesus didn’t care about what the other men in the room thought about his actions? In the presence of perfect love, the Beloved is fearless too.  Do you see how Mary is bold in entering Simons home?  Jesus perfect love for her enabled her to be reckless in her adoration towards him.  I’m so empowered by this. I want this freedom to worship Jesus, don’t you?

There was nothing else she could do but to follow Jesus the rest of her days.  As devout as any of the other disciples Mary loved the Lord, and she loved him much.  Mary found favor with Him.  She was healed and cleansed by Jesus himself. She was defended by him in the presence of her would be enemies.  She was the first to see Jesus that Easter morning when he rose from the tomb. (Think about that, what an honor!)  She was present at his ascension. She loved Jesus and pledged her allegiance to him as one of his female disciples.  She practiced extravagant love in worshiping Jesus.

Mary, her many sins were forgiven…and so she loved much.