The Big Questions

If you are a female who has been to even one women-only church event in your life, 100% chance you have talked about the Martha and Mary story.  (Summary for the menfolk who may not have heard this a thousand times:  Jesus is at their house, Mary sits and listens to him, Martha works in the kitchen and gets annoyed that Mary isn’t helping her, Jesus tells them that Mary did the right thing by listening to him.)  It’s the same questions every time.  Are you more of a Martha or a Mary?  How can we take time out of our busy lives to be less like Martha and more like Mary?  All I can ever think about is how all those people were going to want to eat anyway; someone has to turn on the coffee pot.

Here’s another question:  Are you more of a Laura or a Mary? 

Do you keep your sunbonnet on your head with the straps tied and keep your stitches tiny and even as you embroider a handkerchief?  Or do you throw your sunbonnet off so it hangs down your back as you secretly help your pa gather straw, subsequently keeping your family alive through a winter of relentless blizzards?

I like to think we’re all a little of both.  We’ll see which way Holly swings this summer.  The sunbonnet pattern is courtesy of The Purl Bee.  Thank God all my Little House books are previously out on loan, because I have a million books on my to-read list, but this sunbonnet would have sent me right back into that series again.

The most meaningful insight I’ve ever had from the Martha and Mary story came from a conversation with my [noted Luke theologian] sister Casey, sitting on the couch in my living room.  She said ignore the headings in the bible that divide stories and read them in context.  Mary and Martha comes right after the story of the Good Samaritan, and the stories go together.  The Good Samaritan is about how you should act with people, the Martha and Mary is how you should act with God.  So put that in your back pocket.