There is a story in the Gospels that is hard to shake.
Not because it is troubling, but because it is so stubbornly, beautifully impractical.
A woman walks into a room where Jesus is seated at a table. She is carrying an alabaster jar. Sealed. Expensive. The kind of thing you save. And without ceremony, without explanation, she breaks it open and pours the contents over him. All of it. Every last drop of something worth a year’s wages, spilled out in a single act of love.
The people around the table are indignant. Why this waste? It could have been sold. The money could have been given to the poor. The logic is not wrong. But Jesus stops them.
She has done a beautiful thing.
Not a practical thing. Not an efficient thing. A beautiful thing.
That story lives close to the heart of what Daybreak House is. Because what we do here is not efficient either. It is personal, intentional, and unhurried. The kind of care that cannot be rushed or replicated. It is just a house, with real people in it, holding real babies, one at a time, with as much love as they can pour out on a Tuesday morning.
And it turns out that there are other people in the world who understand that impulse. People who pour out something costly because they believe the cause is worth it.
Esté Jones is one of them.
Art as an act of love
Esté is the artist behind Created with Purpose, a faith-inspired art studio rooted in the conviction that creativity is not separate from calling. It is the calling. Her work draws from Scripture, from the beauty of God’s creation, and from a deep belief that art can carry meaning far beyond the canvas it sits on.
Out of that conviction, Esté founded Alabaster Box Gallery.
It is a registered non-profit that brings together the work of various artists under one roof and one purpose: using art as a vehicle to raise funds for vulnerable children, houses of safety, baby homes, and those in need. Every rand of profit from every artwork sold goes directly back into that work.
The name is not accidental. It is a deliberate echo of that woman in the Gospels, the one who was told she was wasting something precious, and who did it anyway, because she understood what it was for.
Why this matters to Daybreak
Daybreak House is a registered Place of Safety. We care for vulnerable babies from birth until they are reunified with family, placed in foster care, or welcomed into their forever home. Every baby who comes through our doors arrives needing everything: warmth, nourishment, medical care, and above all, the steady presence of people who will show up for them without hesitation.
That kind of care costs money. It costs time. It costs the willingness of people who could pour their resources elsewhere, but choose to pour them here.
When we heard about Alabaster Box Gallery and what Esté and her fellow artists are building, we felt an immediate kinship. Because they are asking the same question we ask every day: what would it look like to give extravagantly, for someone who cannot repay you?
Purchasing a piece from Alabaster Box Gallery is a way of answering that question with something beautiful. Something that will hang on your wall and remind you, every day, that your generosity reached further than your living room.
How you can support this
If you would like to view the artwork in person, Alabaster Box Gallery is currently exhibited at Menlyn Boutique Hotel. It is well worth a visit.
Browse the Alabaster Box Gallery at www.alabasterboxgallery.co.za and find Esté’s work at www.createdwithpurpose.co.za. You can also follow Esté on Instagram at @created.with_purpose_. Her feed is the kind that makes you stop scrolling.
To enquire about or reserve a piece, email Alabaster Box Gallery directly at info@alabasterboxgallery.co.za.
Every purchase is an act of participation in something larger than yourself. The woman in the Gospels did not get to see the full reach of what she poured out that evening. She just knew it was worth doing.
We think she was right.
Daybreak House for Vulnerable Babies is a registered Place of Safety and a project of the Grové Schoombee Foundation NPC. If this post stirred something in you, you can also support our babies directly through a donation, a wish list purchase, or by volunteering your time.
