My Runner Ducks generally move together. They hunt together and bathe together and rest together. They travel in a line (all my ducks in a row), unless they are chasing butterflies or crickets!
They stick together until I come into the pasture. When I open the gate and step inside, I have Poppy’s attention. She quacks loudly and it’s not really a simple “hello” kind of tone, it’s more like a “Yahooo!” Poppy breaks off from her group of friends and comes to meet me. I’m the “food lady”. the “worm hunter”, the “treat giver” – and she doesn’t want to miss out.
Poppy stands and waits her turn while I fill food bowls in the morning. She will quack a few times if I’m moving too slowly, but she doesn’t leave her post. Poppy gets the first meal and the best treats because she is at my feet. The other girls eventually waddle over and pick up the leftovers.
Is anyone else thinking of Mary and Martha yet? That’s the story that God brought to my mind while I served Poppy her breakfast. This story is so well known and yet, it only takes up 4 verses in the gospel of Luke (Luke 10:38-42).
I re-read it after morning chores. Poor Martha gets judged by the whole world for not putting Jesus first, our best choice. We are all “Martha” at some point. We all get busy and distracted and overwhelmed. But look at what Martha did when she was feeling stressed – she went straight to Jesus. “Lord, don’t you care?!” (vs. 40). In her cry for help, Martha reveals her honesty, her vulnerability and for her tender and close relationship with Jesus.
Mary had her priorities right and was sitting at the feet of Jesus. But Martha got it right too. When she was upset, she took her problems to Jesus, who put quickly pointed out what the real problem was.
I often wondered how Martha received Jesus’s words because it felt like a “scolding” to me when I heard it as a child. But this is the Martha of the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus; a family who was dearly loved and often with Jesus. So I imagine that Martha accepted the words and the message with love and was not only able to incorporate that teaching into her life, but THANKFUL for it.
So just one more thing that I noticed about this story: Martha cried out to Jesus to make the situation “fair” – but she did not get the answer that she wanted. His answer may have disappointed Martha at first – but was OH SO important to the bigger picture of developing our faith – and not just for Martha, but for the billions of believers who have read the story since.
Lord, thank you for your Word, that teaches and guides us daily, even thousands of years after the events were recorded. Thank you for knowing that we would still need those words and your perfect perspective in order to grow closer to you – and closer to who you want us to be!
“Seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matt. 6:33
