I saw an alabaster box broken

We are on holidays in Turkey right now. We always try to find a church where we are on holidays, but knowing that there are almost no churches in Turkey I did not even bother to look for one. However, my daughter googled and found one close by and we had half an hour to go. We decided still to go there, rushed into a taxi and got there a bit late. The worship was very uplifting and beautiful. The church was led by a young American missionary couple, who had managed to learn the language. The wife accompanied songs in English and Turkish with her guitar. As a she passed me I saw her guitar. I asked her if she would allow me to play it a little bit. She gave it to me and I played it.It was a top range model of a premium brand guitar made of Koa, a rare and precious tone wood that only grows in Hawaii. The guitar is worth thousands of dollars. I asked her where she got this beautiful and expensive guitar from. She said somebody gifted it to her. I thought: wow, this guitar you normally put into a cabinet and take it out for special occasions. How can somebody be moved to donate such an expensive guitar for mission work. Then I was reminded of Mary Magdalene, who anointed Jesus feet. What a waste might someone say, but I saw this guitar supported the worship of the whole congregation. The fragrance of God's praise filled the room. I do not know who donated the guitar, and surely this person does not want to be known.
Are we ready to bring expensive gifts to God?

"Now the breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited, gone through things for the Lord, willing to be imprisoned by the Lord, just being satisfied with Him and nothing else, immediately you scent the fragrance. There is a savor of the Lord. Something has been crushed, something has been broken, and there is a resulting odor of sweetness. The odor which filled the house that day still fills the Church; Mary's fragrance never passes away.

Friends, we cannot produce impressions of God upon others, impart the sense of the presence of God, without the breaking of everything, even the most precious things, at the feet of the Lord Jesus. The Lord would have us here, not first of all to preach or to do work for Him, but to create hunger in others. No true work will begin in any life apart from a sense of need. We cannot inject that into others, we cannot drive people to be hungry for God. Such hunger can be created only by those whose lives convey vital impressions of Him.

Oh, to be wasted! It is a blessed thing to be wasted for the Lord. So many of us who have been prominent in the Christian world know nothing of this. Many of us have been used to the full--have been used, I would say, too much--but we do know what it means to be wasted on God. We like to be always "on the go": the Lord would sometimes prefer to have us in prison. We think in terms of apostolic journeys: God dares to put His greatest ambassadors in chains. "But thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place" (2 Corinthians 2:14).”

Excerpt from "Waste” by Watchman Nee

Thank goodness she didn’t need to break it to get the music to come out!

Oh dear brother, what a beautiful testimony! Please give your sweet wife a hug for me. Holding you all in prayer.

Dear brother Mike,
God bless you for standing strong!

I have been to egypt where they make alabaster boxes and it is still as expensive to make today as it was then

Hi Dominic! What a blessing it is to touch base with old friends. It has been so very long since I have seen your faces that I can hardly remember what you look like. However, I have you all in my heart. Praise the LORD for the great things that He has done!

Good to hear from you, sister, we remember you.