Welcome to Part 3 of Arise and Shine: The Oil of Anointing. Today, Bettie is opening part 3 with a devotional, including a poem and Spirit-led song she was gifted, as she shares what God showed her about the process required to make the anointing oil and its connection to Christ’s labor of love and our response to that.
Join us in the coming days and weeks for the chapters and daily free will offerings connected to the Oil of Anointing. We will be posting these as the LORD leads us.

Have you seen the beautiful plant called “Crown of Thorns?” It is a reliable bloomer that keeps me going through the garden-less days of winter. But just because it’s reliable, doesn’t mean it’s boring. I am always moved by the beauty that rests alongside the pain of this plant. Thorns are jagged along the whole stem, with hardly a space left open. But at the tip of each stem there rests such a fragile seeming, tender bloom. Will my own heart find tenderness alongside the pain?
Crown of Thorns
Gentle thorns, I pray
Please don't blow the joy away
Let the blooms remain
And if you understand the Song of Solomon to be an allegory of the love story between our God and His People, then He sees us as that beautiful bloom:
“Him: Like a lily among thorns, that is what she is;
my dear is a captivating beauty among the young women.” Song of Solomon 2:2
Oh, what a mystery is the Love of our Lord! Many years ago, during a particularly busy and overwhelming Season in my life, my Lord spoke this Spirit-led song over my heart in a dream:
"I will pour on you
the oil of gladness in the morning,
I will pour on you
the oil of my joy.
I will burn off all the dross,
Stir up what remains,
And I will pour on you
the oil of my joy."
At the time the song was given, I searched the Scriptures, and the historical processes for the Biblical anointing oil that was used by Moses. And this is what I found in Exodus 30:20-25 (NIV):
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant calamus, 500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil
Then to understand the process that the “work of a perfumer” would have gone through, I found these words by David Levy, in his book, The Tabernacle: Shadows of the Messiah:
“The anointing oil was made from a specific formula . . . Rabbinical sources state that Moses, having reduced the solid ingredients to powder, steeped them in water until all the aromatic qualities were drawn out. The olive oil was then poured into the ingredients and the water boiled out. The residue thus obtained was preserved in a vessel for use.”
Where did those specific ingredients come from? Cinnamon, cassia, and calamus were gathered from the bark and leaves of fragrant plants. But myrhh—it’s a thorny plant that only releases its resin after a wounding is made to the bark. So, not only is the process of making the anointing oil a journey through drying, grinding, steeping, and boiling, but there is a wounding involved in the very first step of gathering.
Dear one, are you facing a wounding in your life? Are you in a season of boiling stress? Or maybe you are facing the drying winds of a desert. Rest assured, our Lord has already walked through the process that was required to birth the anointing oil that He, himself became for us. But He has called us His lily among the thorns. Are we ready to give our love, our anointing oil, back to Him?
My feet are aching
Here on this thorny road
Where pebbles prick my feet
Diseased and worn
I hobble through my days.
The oil given me
A healing balm I’m told
Will soothe the burning
And restore the movement
Illness took from me.
But I don’t see results
I cry when I am forced
To wait while others walk
And watch the path
Sit silent at my feet.
And yet
I pour the oil.
Another woman poured her oil
She wasted all her treasure
For ONE the world called
Foolish and meek
Anointing Him for burial.
A beautiful gift she gave
Poured from the wounding
In her heart
After the boiling of her pain
Had wrecked her heart for HIM.
God had set the plan
He had made the picture
Worship required Anointing
Anointing required oil
Born from a wounding and a scar.
Jesus dear Redeemer
You were that oil for me
After your own wounding
Pounded, dried and scourged
Blood drops squeezed so pure.
Now here am I at your feet
Broken, wounded, beaten
By diseases from this world
Yet from the thorn-touch here
You birth a lovely gift.
The oil of my wounding
Has become my sacrifice
Of praises never ending
Washing your feet with tears
Drying them with my hair.
You pull me to my feet
Your words for all to hear
From lips so full of love
What she has done so free
Eternity will call, Beautiful.
Lovely! I didn’t know that about myrrh. The wounding is the first step of the process…
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The recipe intrigues me – there’s always a story to a recipe – but what a Holy story! So much grace, so much beauty – your poem left me with the aroma of a loving God! So beautiful Bettie!
https://bluecottonmemory.com/open-my-eyes-in-wonder/
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