a teaching moment

I've spent a good part of my spiritual journey looking at how God uses the mistakes we make. A friend with whom I taught Sunday School many years ago put it this way, "We are like clay pots. Each time we make a mistake, or get dropped, a new crack is formed. Yet the light of God lives within us, shining through the cracks of our mistakes to show His light to the world." Seems an apt analogy as millions of pumpkins will allow light to shine through their cracks tonight, but I digress.

Her view of the redemption of mistakes is one that has stuck with me through more than my fair share of goof-ups. And in the First Kings reading from Proper 27b has light shing through it as well. I'm probably reading too much into the text (or at least viewing it too literally), but it looks like Elijah runs into the wrong widow upon arrving at Zarephath.

The Lord commanded Elijah to go and live in Zarephath "for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." Having not looked at the Hebrew, it seems to be straightforward enough. God is calling Elijah to move having already called the widow to feed him. Elijah, not knowing which widow in Zarephath has recieved the call, calls out to the first one he sees.

"Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink," he says. I wonder if that was a litmus test for the widow. Because she agreed to get him water, Elijah assumed she was the widow called by God. "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand," he shouts as she departs. In the words of my 12th grade English teacher, "we all know what happens when you spell assume backwards." [pause]

Anyway, in her response to Elijah it seems clear that this was, in fact, not the right widow. "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug..." This doesn't sound like a woman called by God to feed Elijah, but alas God works through the mistake. Elijah speaks a word to her, a new call to a new widow to take care of Elijah.

Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.

This new call will test the faith of both Elijah and the widow, but is a wonderful teaching moment for them both. Through Elijah's mistake God is given the opportunity to show both Elijah and the widow what He can do with meager means. A mircle happens over and over again for "many days" as the meal and oil never run out. Each day as they ate, they were able to give thanks to the LORD for the gift of daily bread, bread which should not exist, but for the mistake of Elijah.