Empty
Pockets
“...I
have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a
little oil in my jug...”
1
Kings 17:12
There's
a song on Paul Simon's Graceland album, “Diamonds on the
Soles of her Shoes,” that goes: “He's a poor boy, Empty as a
pocket, Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose...” I am reminded of
it when I read this passage from 1 Kings in which Elijah begs a poor
widow-woman for a bit of bread. He's empty as a pocket and so is she.
Don't we all have days like that—literally and metaphorically?
Sometimes, we're scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. It doesn't really
matter how much we have, or don't have—all of us go through “empty
pocket” periods. In the case of Elijah and the poor widow, the
instruction he gives her is to do it anyway. In other words, have a
little faith that God will get you through even your bottom of the
barrel experiences. In fact, he asks her to go ahead and cook her
last meal and share it with him, and trust God to provide—which, in
this story, God does.
Truth
is, sharing what we have actually helps to drag us up from the
bottom. If you're going down, you may as well have some company on
the journey, right? What we discover is that in the sharing comes
nourishment, and in the joining of souls is true communion. Even a
bit of bread and a sip of water shared with an open heart can fill us
with hope. It can end the drought, or at least, turn a corner and put
us on a new street. Who knows, we may even find ourselves with diamonds on
the soles of our shoes, or at least, diamonds in our souls.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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