Just Enough

Having fallen well on the bad side of the authorities, what with eliminating the queen's favorites and foretelling a three-year drought, the prophet Elijah went into hiding. He stayed by the side of a brook that God had sent him to, drinking the water from it and eating what food ravens brought him. I doubt they were bringing banquets, but he had enough. 

The brook dried up (drought, remember?), and Elijah was sent to a town called Zarephath to be fed by a widow who lived there. When he arrived, the widow had only sufficient food for a last meal. He asks for her to feed him first, and he gives her God's promise: "The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land." And it isn't used up, and it doesn't run dry.

You know what else doesn't happen, or else not that we read about? The jar doesn't fill, nor does the jug. The widow isn't able to buy vegetables, let alone a luxury item like meat. From the information we have, it seems as though every day there is enough...and just enough.

It's a hard way to live, day to day, reminding yourself of the promise every morning. Targeted remembering is not an easy thing. I wonder if there were days the widow doubted, days she thought, "This could be the last bit of flour for real this time." Even if she ever did doubt, it wouldn't have made a difference in what happened. Because He promised.

I have been thinking about this story a lot in the past few days. I have never been near starvation, but I have been at the edge in many ways (small or not), and there has always been enough of whatever it was I needed.

I want to go to that jar of flour and jug of oil with confidence. I've never once found them empty.