What a waste?

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as he reclined at the table. But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor." But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me or burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her."

I'm not sure how much I really understand of this story. Right before this Jesus tells his disciples that "after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion." The next verse is about the elders and the chief priests plotting to take Jesus away in secret right after passover. Then, we are here at Simon's home, witnessing the scene with this woman and her alabaster vial of expensive perfume. Did she hear Jesus telling the disciples he would be crucified? Did she hear of the plot to take Jesus after Passover? Was it something that God had revealed to her in the depths of her heart? She must have had an inkling of some sort - from the disciples reaction, we see that it was not a common day practice. Perhaps they had become too legalistic at the moment to see the beauty and necessity of her sacrifice. For me it comes down to cherishing the time that I have with Jesus as this woman did. She had a moment to spend with him where she could pour out all she had into worship of Him and she took advantage of it. That is how I want to live my life - taking full advantage of every moment I am presented to have in intimacy with Jesus. I do not want to become legalistic with my time, my money, my anything - I want to be always ready to enter into a moment with my Lord - to worship Him.