Anointing with Oil
Psalm 23
Donna Schaper
My son nicked himself the first time he shaved and it bled and bled. He was embarrassed because he had picked the first day of school to try the razor on himself. I recommended a little oil of eucalyptus. He said no, loudly.
Whenever my children got a "boo boo", I would apply cream from the magic ointment called Bacitracin. They had no idea how boring it really was and considered it the magic oil.
I love the free "cream" section at the duty free shops at airports. I anoint myself with frequent samplings.
When we speak of our Shepherd anointing our head with oil, we can either say no thank you; I'd rather suffer alone in my own little adolescent prison. Or we can say thank you to the magic of our hurts being healed. We can even understand the universe as a place of free anointings, minute by minute. That is the image David puts before us in the psalm we love so much. "My head is anointed with oil, and my cup runneth over..."
It is an image of abundance, free and pouring out like a river from the great heart of God.
Prayer: Dear God, during this Lenten journey, help me hold on to you so closely that I do not hold on to anything else too closely. Amen
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