Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Give Us This Day...


The widow of Zarephath is one of my favorite Bible stories.

She’s hunting down kindling to cook her last meal and kissing life goodbye. Then she meets Elijah. He asks for food. “But sir, I have next to nothing myself,” she says. He promises the bizarre—an unthinkable, never-before-seen miracle from Heaven. For some reason, she trusts him enough to give him all she has. (I Kings 17.)

The spectacular takes place. Her jars of oil and flour never seem to run out. While they’re never mentioned as overflowing in obvious abundance, day by day, they never empty. She is given enough.

There is a common theme woven through the Bible about “daily bread.” In the early days of Israel, God fed manna from Heaven. The people were only to take enough for that day, not storing up for later. In Matthew Henry’s commentary, he said: “They called it...'Manna’…which means ‘what is this?’…It is a portion; it is that which our God has allotted us, and we will take it, and be thankful.” Hundreds of years later, King David praises God for being His “portion.” And even later, Jesus tells his disciples to ask God for their daily bread.

What is all this on portions, bread, and an unending oil supply? Often, it would appear, God gives us only what is needed for the day. Granted, there are occasions in which God seems to shake a piñata over our heads and showers of abundant blessings fall; in fact, not long after the widow of Zarephath was provided oil day-by-day, yet another widow was instantly given barrels and barrels of oil by God. She didn’t have to wait daily to witness God’s faithfulness. Oil came bubbling forth until she had filled every jug and pan her village would lend her. But God does not always operate like this.

For the most part, it seems that the first widow’s story is the “norm.” She wasn’t provided for with millions right off the bat. In the midst of her Titanic-sunk economic situation, she probably still had other wants to be met; but God met her biggest needs day by day.

This concept still goes. In my own life, I’ve prayed for certain outcomes (like a smooth, stressless day). Had I known beforehand what the outcome actually was going to be—that my day would be more like the perfect storm than the perfect day-- I probably would have panicked. But when those moments arrive, so does He, with strength and grace enough.