Elijah's Miracle Meal

"She did as Elijah had told her.

So there was food daily for Elijah the woman and her family.

For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry,

in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah."

 (from 1 Kings 17:15-16)

Elijah is on a mission to announcing to everyone a coming drought unless God provides rain.

Elijah’s miracle lunch break begins when the Lord tells him to go camp at the Cherith canyon, where the ravens feed him twice daily.

Eventually the canyon's waters evaporate producing a drought.

Go to Zarephath, the Lord tells Elijah, where a woman will feed you.

He goes, meets a woman gathering sticks, and asks her for a bite to eat and a drink of water.

She reacts sarcastically saying, “I have a handful of flour and a little oil; you found me scratching together enough firewood for a last meal for my son and me!”

Elijah answers, “Don’t worry about it. First make me a small biscuit and bring it back. Then make a meal from what’s left for you and your son.”

Elijah declares, “This is the word of the Lord: ‘The jar of flour won’t run out and the bottle of oil won’t empty before God sends rain on the land ending this drought.’”

She did as Elijah asked and it turned out as Elijah said, the jar of meal didn’t run out and the bottle of oil didn’t become empty: God’s promise fulfilled to the letter, exactly as Elijah had delivered it!

The miracle here relies on our capacity for understanding the potential of the miraculous in the stresses of the past few months.

Then, when we recognize a revelation from God in the ordinary stuff of life, doing what we can to build God's Kingdom.

It may be through coffee and donuts rather than flour and oil, but we can trust in a revelation from God.