Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He said, ‘Then bring some flour.’ He threw it into the pot, and said, ‘Serve the people and let them eat.’ And there was nothing harmful in the pot.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, November 11, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Salt to purify water (v. 19-21), now flour to neutralize poison. Elisha was a master of taking everyday items and using them to work miracles. These were not grand-scale miracles—they affected from a few hundred people (the water) to just a small group of people (the stew)—but for the recipients of the miracles they were enormous. They brought restoration and new life.
It makes me think of the adage: “Do what you can with what you’ve got where you are,” which Theodore Roosevelt is generally credited with, but which he attributed to Squire Bill Widener in his 1912 autobiography. Regardless of the ultimate source, the message is beautiful and simple. We may not be able to neutralize poison with a handful of flour, nor purify water with a handful of salt, but we can take whatever it is God has gifted to us and put it to good use as God directs. That might be money toward a pressing cause or our own time and bodies on the front lines in a march for justice. It could be a meal served at a homeless shelter or a full time job doing outreach for unhoused people. As Elisha’s miracles show time and again, the prophet and the substance are merely the catalysts for God’s action in the world. We live in the promise that if we do what we can with what we have where we are, God shows up and works miracles.
What small act have I done that has had an impact on another person’s life?
