Day 6: What a desperate widow is teaching me about sacrifice.

It was a great dry season. A season of famine and death. A season of scarcity. No rain, no fresh life, no sustenance. 

There was a tired man, a man of authority, a traveling man, the mouthpiece of God. 

There was a woman, a desperate, old woman with no husband, and a son with a mouth to feed. 

Resources were low. Morale was low. Death seemed to linger near. 

God said to the man, Elijah:

“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”  As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, 

“Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

If anyone understood scarcity it was the dear old woman. Hadn't she first been without a husband, the provider, the protector? She was no stranger to famine, to hardship. As she prepared what she believed to be her last meal on earth, this weary traveler would've been the last thought on her mind. 

But she said, 

“As the Lord your God lives, I have NO bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may 

eat it 

and 

die.” 

Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear.

Go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. 

How did this dear old widow respond to such a bold request by a man she'd never seen before? Here we see an example of true sacrifice fleshed out in a real bold way. She invited him inside, took the last she had, and courageously started kneading bread dough. 

She must have worried. Knowing a mama's heart she must've already decided that she was going to forego this last meal for the sake of her boy. She must've been frustrated at the audacity of this visitor's request. Yet, something compelled her to welcome him and add him to their guest list. Did she say yes with a deep hunch that this prophet's God would somehow come through? 

The outcome was a miraculous one: 

For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.’”...and she and he and her household ate for many days. 

{ 1 Kings 17 }

And the Lord God was absolutely right. Her oil indeed never did run dry and the mouths in her home were always satisfied. 

I love that Elijah's first response to her situation was "Do not fear". He knew the timidity of the human heart. He also knew the unconventionally miraculous ways of Yahweh.

This widow's heart is teaching me about the beauty of sacrifice. First of all, sacrifice is costly. It means making an offering to the Lord FIRST, before you know if you're going to have enough. Second, sacrifice is only meaningful when you remember who you're sacrificing for. Sacrifice with manipulative motives doesn't lead to miraculous abundance, it just makes you feel like a good person. And that's about it. Third, sacrifice is only a sacrifice if it's truly released to the Lord. There's not take backs, no return policy. It's hard to let go of a the little you have left, but it is the way of freedom. The outcome is abundance- overflowing oil and extra bread to spare. Mouths are fed and hearts are satisfied. 

Scarcity + Sacrifice = { more than } Enough