She passed away decades before I was born, so I only know a few facts about my cousin, Rebecca Smith. Her grandfather is my third great-grandfather. This connection makes us first cousins three times removed. I know she spent her lifetime in Albany, Kentucky. She never married or had children. She outlived her parents and sister by a few years. More importantly, I know she was loved and perhaps a bit of a hero because the epitaph on her headstone reads, “She hath done what she could.“

When my Mom, an avid genealogist, first told me about Rebecca’s headstone, I sighed and muttered, “Bless her heart.” To me, the sentiment seemed dismissive and condescending. It reads as if my dear cousin did her best, but somehow her efforts at life were just shy of the mark.

Despite my bad attitude, the phrase stayed with me over the next few days. The words seemed familiar, so I consulted Google and learned that I’m the one who missed the mark. This epitaph actually quotes Jesus and echoes His commendation of the faith of an unnamed woman. The sentence appears in Mark 14:8 as translated in the King James Version of the Bible.

In Mark 14:3-9, Jesus was in the town of Bethany two days before Passover. While His dissenters hatched the plans that would ultimately lead to His death on the cross, Jesus reclined at the home of Simon the Leper. According to Mark, an unnamed woman entered Simon’s home with an alabaster jar of perfume and broke it over Jesus’s head to anoint and honor Him with the fragrant contents.

The guests who were gathered in Simon’s home scoffed at her actions. You see, the alabaster jar and perfume inside were precious and expensive. The crowd complained that the jar and perfume could have been sold for funds to feed the poor instead of anointing Jesus. (Imagine this happening on social media today!) In response, Jesus acknowledged the need to care for those experiencing poverty, but He adamantly defended her choice as follows: “She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial” (Mark 14:8 NIV).

Jesus recognized the value of the gift this woman sacrificed to honor Him. He knew this was an offering from her heart, not her bank account. She recognized who Jesus was and gave Him the very best that she had. Jesus appreciated and acknowledged her offering. In fact, in the next verse, Jesus states, “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9 NIV).

The phrasing Jesus uses here celebrates this woman as an epic hero to be remembered. We don’t know her name, but Jesus meant for her actions to resound from the pages of our Bibles over two thousand years later. Her gift is a lesson and reminder to us that, despite what the world says, we do the best we can when we give the best of ourselves to Jesus.

Scripture is filled with stories like this of both named and unnamed women giving the best of what they have to God, often in the face of criticism or danger. God accepted their gifts and multiplied them to bless others. Like the women of the Bible, you and I also encounter moments when the world tells us our gifts are too much or too little. We must decide to act in faith or freeze in fear. When we respond in faith, God celebrates and multiplies our stories to bless others.

Faithlogue’s mission is to participate in God’s work of multiplying the blessings in our stories of choosing faith in Him. Every believer’s story of God’s goodness bears eternal significance, but women’s stories resonate best with my daily life as a daughter, mom, wife, leader, theologian, writer, and friend. They tell me who God is and who I am because of him. They edify my faith and teach me how to live it out. I want to tell these stories because I need to hear these stories.

I still don’t know much about Rebecca. However, I now know that the epitaph on her headstone honors a life of giving the best of herself to Jesus. Imagine, in a world that is so quick to dismiss the women it cannot see, Rebecca’s loved one honored her life in stone. That act gave me the courage and the words I needed to write my first post for Faithlogue. Because of this, Rebecca is my hero. She devoted her life to the One who knows her eternally. I hope that the work of Faithlogue will give you and me both the courage we need to do the same.

“She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Mark 14:8-9 NIV

© 2023 Lori Myers Berry