“And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.” Mark 14: 3

A story is told of a woman whose husband was very sick and doctors gave her assurance that if she could bring a certain amount of money, they would manage to treat him and he would recover. With that hope pinned in her heart, the lady started visiting her children, relatives, her in-laws, people who looked like close friends to her husband. No matter what she said to move them to put together something so as to substrate her husband from the death sentence that was hanging, nobody wanted to help and each of them provided a big variety of excuses. Without money, the husband was not attended to and soon passed away.

When the woman eventually broke the sad news to those she contacted earlier and who preferred to offer excuses where their support and money were rather needed, they came lamenting, sharing testimonies about how great the husband was, how friendly they were and how much he would be missed. They started showing a compassionate mind-blowing generosity: someone decided to offer the most expensive coffin, another one volunteered to rent the best hearse of the town to transport the body from the mortuary to the church and from there to the graveyard; others agreed to contribute financially so as to offer the biggest reception the town has ever known. They said they were doing all that as tokens of their love for the late husband.

While parents, friends and even the children of the deceased were thus actively demonstrating their love to the passed-away-man, his wife was there motionless. She was shocked by how much these same persons who, a few days earlier, had a multitude of excuses not to spend, are now profusely generous, mobilizing far more than would have been required to save his husband. Damage control is indeed expensive, even very expensive.

Brother, sister, if there is anything good you intend to do to someone, do it now for later could be too late and it might cost you way above what you will spend today. Look at the ladies who went after the resurrection to anoint the body of Jesus, they arrived after Jesus has risen and it was too late.

Do the right thing now for damage control is expensive