Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He said, “At this season, in due time, you shall embrace a son.” She replied, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not deceive your servant.” The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, November 10, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
The woman was understandably skeptical of Elisha’s promise. She just wanted to be helpful to Elisha by giving him a place to stay—she had asked nothing in return. But, as so many women in these stories, she was childless and “her husband was old.” It never says she was unable to have children—only that she didn’t have any. Elisha makes a pretty bold assumption in his promise, that she would even want children. But as that was the measure of a woman’s worth and therefore happiness at the time, it probably wasn’t far off the mark. In fact, the woman’s response confirms it—she rejects the promise out of fear that it won’t happen for her as he says. She does not want to be disappointed in him or in God.
Of course, she does have a son, as Elisha promised, and that should be the end of it, but it’s not. Because as we learn when we read on, her son dies of what appears to be some kind of brain aneurism when he is still young. How cruel could God be?!? She never asked for a son. She didn’t want Elisha’s promise, lest it be broken. And now, after giving her what she couldn’t bring herself to ask for, it is cruelly ripped away.
How often do we find ourselves similarly crushed when what we were absolutely certain was God’s will suddenly goes south and we lose security or health or a relationship or even a loved one’s life? How much more painful it is to lose something that seemed hard won than something that came easily!
Elisha recognizes the profound grief that he has, in some ways, helped to cause, and goes to make it right. Mirroring the resurrection performed by his mentor, Elijah, on another woman’s son, Elisha raises the boy from the dead and returns him to his mother in full health. Most of us don’t have the same experience with that kind of loss. But we do have communities that come around us, people who comfort us, who give us space to grieve and walk with us as we learn to live again. What we have lost may not be restored to us, but through God’s grace, we ourselves can be restored—perhaps not 100% whole, depending on what, exactly, we have lost, but we can live again, lives of meaning and joy, if we open ourselves to the little miracles of healing God provides in lots of big and little ways.
Is there a loss that I have never fully recovered from? Where is God in the midst of my grief?
