The Easter holiday is longer than usual and a great opportunity to follow Mary’s example in Luke 10:42.

Jesus has come to stay at Mary and Martha’s home; Martha is preoccupied with hospitality, and that’s great. Jesus turns to Mary, who is listening to his teaching, and commends her for doing:

‘The one thing that is necessary.’

She sat at Jesus’ feet, and listened to His teaching. She took the position of the disciple with her master. Paul tells us in Acts 22:3 that he ‘sat at Gamaliel’s feet.’ That’s what it is to be a disciple. The word means one who learns.  

In those days women weren’t encouraged to learn like this. But Jesus is not conventional. He wasn’t bound by other’s expectations. He sat at God’s feet, and did what God wanted, not what the people around him expected.

He was willing and glad to teach Mary. And he is willing and glad to teach each of us. None of us is too small to be important to Him. None of us is too wise not to need His teaching. The question is, are we planning in time to sit at Jesus’ feet to be taught?

If you are, do you stop to thank God? That’s a sure sign that He’s at work. Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to make us hungry for His teaching. Plan when you’re going to sit at his feet: why not decide now to put aside the first 15 or 20 minutes of the day to sit at His feet and be a Mary, before attending to all the other demands on our time.

Your brother in Christ, 
Ian