What’s In Your House?

Reflection

A widow came to the prophet Elisha in desperation. Her husband had died, she was in debt, and a creditor was threatening to take her two sons. As a mother, I cannot imagine the fear she must have felt. She wasn't coming to Elisha with a minor inconvenience. She believed she had reached the end of what she could do.

Elisha asked her an interesting question: “What do you have in the house?” Her first response was essentially, nothing. Then she remembered something. There was a little oil.

How often do we do the same thing? We look at what we have and compare it to what we need, and because it doesn't appear sufficient, we call it nothing. But what if it isn't nothing?

Maybe you don't have the money you need, but you have a skill. Maybe you don't have the opportunity you want, but you know someone you could call. Maybe you don't have the experience yet, but you have the ability to learn. You may have equipment, unused space, an idea, a relationship, knowledge, time, creativity, something you could make, something you could sell, or something you could offer.

Every serious problem does not have a simple answer sitting somewhere in the house. But we should be careful about calling something nothing simply because it isn't enough by itself.

The widow's oil couldn't solve her problem sitting in the container. But it gave God something to begin with.