The Welcome

"Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said."

Mary, defined only by her relationships to Martha as "her sister", was placed under the eclipse of Martha's driving energy.
But Mary moved to sit in Another's shadow.
She took her place on the floor.

Mary received Him.

Martha only welcomed Him...
with loud applause and perhaps flamboyant pride.
He, the famous, came to her house.
It was spoken of as her house.

The proud deign to give by conspicuous generosity.
The humble -- aware only of gaunt poverty --
sit down to beg.

We have nothing to say to God but thank you.
No place to give Him but a home in our heart.
No gift to offer but unguarded receptivity.

Mary received Him... into life's only two treasures:
her heart and her time.
This was her house.

She gave Him the space to be Himself,
to define -- reveal -- His Own Splendid Being.

No others did that, not even the disciples who wanted
Him for the super hero of their imagination.

To Mary, He gave His secrets.
Busy little beavers building dams of safe protection,
have no time to woo His secrets from Him.

In the end, Martha found Him to be a
painful interruption of her contrivance --
an ungrateful intruder into her very soul.

She did not want to be perceived by God,
only by man.

It was really only Mary who gave Him the open invitation
to His own dominion.

It was after all... His house.

(from "Adoration" by Martha Kilpatrick)