Advent, day 3. The Jar and the Jug

The drought across Samaria, Israel, and Judah affected everyone, including Elijah. The ripples of sin touch the innocent. God still met his needs, but then allowed them to fade to call him to deeper trust. So he trekked back across the Jordan, towards the Mediterranean through a country where he was a most wanted man. God sent him to a foreigner, not even a faithful Israelite. Then God required him to ask something unreasonable of her: cutting away at her own chance of survival and her son. 

This God of all Comfort seems more the God of Discomfort: Elijah is thirsty, starving, hunted, exhausted and must ask the lowest member of the community for help. In this humiliation the prophet seems to get it, that the comfort of God comes through tribulation.

The Jar and the Jug

1 Ki 17: 14 The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry in keeping with the word of the LORD . . .

Elijah:

Brook trickles less each day—

My beard drags in the mud.

I face the scorching sun again

And seek the face of God.

Such silence in the wilderness

Quiet death pervades.

The muted rainbow, desert home

Where I seek out the shade.

This morn I woke before the dawn

And found my brook run dry.

You sent me to this desolation:

Your plan subverted—why?

Widow:

Today I heard their God

Not in my ears,  but deep

Within in my soul—in empty space

Where I am loathe to creep.

A foreign voice of mystery

commanded, beckoned me—

To feed a stranger at his plea.

Starvation madness consumes me.

Elijah:

Today a stranger—most absurd,

I, in a foreign land—

Cursed to thirst by my own word,

I crave to drink this sand.

“Woman, would you kindly bring

a dying prophet water?”

She went without demure 

As if a loving daughter.

“And please, a morsel of dry bread—“

At this she sadly shook her head.

Widow:

Your God lives and your God speaks—

Of this I am aware:

He even knows my lowly place

And that my table’s bare.

I have but flour and oil to make

A small meal, then it’s done.

These twigs will cook the final food

For you, me, and my son.

Elijah:

Don’t be afraid. Do as you planned:

Recall you first heard His command.

Widow:

Today I heard Your God

Ask more than I could give,

Then put in me the courage

To sacrifice and live.