As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

Apparently, Jesus and His party had just dropped in on Martha and Mary― they hadn’t even thought to call ahead!

Martha was all agog, running around like a chicken with her head chopped off, trying to get refreshments and a meal thrown together, while Mary was just sitting around doing nothing at all to help; Martha was becoming a tad put off by this.

I’m willing to guess that we’ve all seen scenes something like this before, and perhaps we’ve even been in Martha’s shoes, I know I’ve been there. Without question, Martha’s instincts were right, and hospitality required her frantic attempts to organize a proper reception for her important guests. Yet these were not just any guests, for they included the Messiah, Son of David, Son of God.

As we can see from Jesus’ comments, Mary actually had the right idea for that particular event, sitting as she was, at Jesus’ feet, listening to what He was saying. Mary was in the presence of the Son of God and listening to the Word He had brought to their home. He didn’t need to be fed; He was there to feed Martha and Mary.

I think that the best illustration I’ve ever made of this general idea, and how it might apply in our lives was a series of posts that I did several years ago in the week leading up to Thanksgiving. The posts were all about getting the house ready, making sure everything was perfect. Getting the food ready, making preparations in advance and leading up to the stress of the Big Day…

When the Day arrived and the guests arrived, nobody notices how much work went into getting the house perfect. The meal that took so much work and planning, was devoured in a matter of minutes, and I seriously doubt that anyone would even remember it now, or even a few days after eating it. What actually mattered were the people who came together and their relationships with one another.

Of course, in Martha and Mary’s case, they had the Son of God sitting on the couch sharing with them, and that’s the most important relationship of all.

How easy it can be to let the distractions of life take us away from our relationship with Jesus.