Mary of Bethany is my favorite woman in the Bible. She could be called the Enoch of the New Testament.

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered into a certain village. And a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had
a sister called Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving; and she came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister did leave me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.

41 But the Lord answered and said unto her: Martha, Martha, you are
anxious and
troubled about MANY THINGS.

42 But ONE THING is needful;
for Mary has chosen THE GOOD PART, which shall not be taken away from her.

As a child I was taught by my mother to eat the whole thing: the crust with the bread, the peeling with the apple -- not to waste. However, she liked to eat the icing on the cake with just a little dough herself!

But the Lord commends Mary of Bethany for having chosen the good part. She chose the ONE THING that is needful, namely fellowship with the Lord Jesus, ABIDING IN CHRIST. She was more interested in feeding on Him than preparing physical food. Note what she did:

"sat at the Lord's feet and heard his word."

1. She sat:

She stayed there, she did ADIDE. She had a long attention span for the Lord.

2. at:

She stayed NEAR the Lord. She fed on Him. It appears that she could not get enough of His company.

3. the Lord's feet:

She was submissive to the Lord and honored Him as above her. Later she will anoint those feed with a prescious ointment (nard) and wipe them with her hair, shortly before His crucifixion.

4. "heard"

She paid attention to what the Lord said and spent a long time at it. She appears to be the only person who actually understood that the Lord Jesus was going to be crucified. Thus, she was delivered from any illusions or delusions she might have had about Him just advancing to the throne of Israel without suffering first.

5. "His word"

Out of all the voices crying for attention in her life, we see that she valued the Word of the Lord above all. She fed on His spoken word.

When will we ever learn that "ONE THING IS NEEDFUL"?