Two men working in a factory were talking. “I know how to get some time off,” said one.
“How are you going to do that?”
“Watch,” he said, and climbed up on a rafter. The foreman asked what he was doing up there, and the man replied. ”I’m a light bulb.”
“I think you need some time off,” the foreman said, and the first man walked out of the factory. After a moment, the second man followed him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the foreman shouted.
“I can’t work in the dark,” he said.
That is one way of getting out of work. In Luke 10:41 Mary is sitting at the Lord’s feet while Martha complains to Jesus that she is left to do all the menial tasks. Jesus points out that Mary has chosen the better role – the presence of the Lord trumps all the busy preparations that can muddle up our patience.
Imagine a couple getting ready for weekend visitors. The husband and wife divide up tasks and schedule activities to free up the time to visit when the guests arrive. Then time gets short and tasks get long. Patience is elusive and tempers rise.
The most important thing here is not the coming guests. What we offer each other in a family is more important than what we offer any visitors. The presence of Jesus in each member of the family trumps the expected visitors.
Jesus is already here. Let’s bask in the joy of that. We can avoid the low level controversies and fix our hearts on Jesus constant presence. “Invited or not, God is present,” Carl Jung.
I know a man who plans preparations so that he will have time for a rest before his company arrives. “What can I offer my guests if I am burned out,” he says. What we offer each other in a family is more important than what we offer any visitors.
Jesus is the guest who will come perhaps when we do not expect Him. “I will stand at my guard post… and keep watch, to see what he will say to me” (Habakkuk 2:1).
In the Martha and Mary story Martha snaps at Jesus for letting Mary visit with him and leaving her to do all the household tasks. Notice that Jesus loved her nevertheless and gently led her thinking in another direction: “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things… only one is needed. Mary has chosen the better part.”
Our love for others should carry us through those times of stressful preparation. It is then we need to be Christian and put love ahead of pettiness.
Living our lives against the eternal backdrop of God’s presence will help us be grateful for the gifts of creation and the gift of each other. In the Lord all burdens are lightened.
It is all a matter of perspective. Two men labour side by side in the hot sun. One of them is laying bricks; the other is building a cathedral.
Come to me, all who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest… my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
