Sitting Still When There's So Much to Do

Jesus came to visit, and Martha threw her door open wide.

You can almost smell it. Bread in the oven. Something warm on the fire. Martha wanted everything just right, because Jesus was coming, and you make things beautiful for the people you love.

So she got busy.

She swept the floor and set the table. She stirred and poured and carried. Her hands were full and her feet were quick and her heart was thumping with all there was to do.

But her sister Mary did not get busy.

Mary sat down. Right there on the floor, close to Jesus, where she could hear every word he said. He had been walking the roads telling stories, like the one about the traveler and the enemy who stopped to help, and Mary did not want to miss a single word. She stayed near him, listening, the way you lean in close to someone you love.

And Martha looked over, and something hot rose up in her chest.

Do you know that feeling? When you are working so hard, and it seems like no one even sees? When you start to think, I have to do all this, or it won't get done, or it won't be enough, or I won't be enough?

Martha put her hands on her hips. "Lord," she said, "don't you care? My sister left me to do everything alone. Tell her to come help me."

Jesus did not scold her for being tired. He saw her tiredness, all of it. He said her name, soft, the way you say a name you are fond of. "Martha, Martha."

Twice. Like reaching out for both her hands.

"You are worried and upset about so many things," he said. "But only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen it. And it will not be taken away from her."

Only one thing, and it was not a perfect table or a clean floor or hands quick enough to earn a smile.

The one thing was him.

Martha thought she had to work her way close to Jesus, busier and busier, until she was worth sitting near him. But Mary already understood. You do not earn your way to his feet. You just come. You sit down. You let him love you while you are doing nothing at all.

That was the rest Martha's heart was really hungry for. Not a finished kitchen, just to be near him, and to know she was wanted there.

And that rest is for you too.

You do not have to be good enough first. You do not have to do enough, or be fast enough, or get it all just right before he is glad you came. He already is. He looks at you the way he looked at Mary on the floor. He says your name twice, soft, like you are his favorite, because to him every child he loves is.

So put down all that you are carrying. Sit close, the way Mary did.

There is always room on the floor beside him, and he is never in a hurry for you to get up.