The gracious hospitality of this...
Illustration
The gracious hospitality of this woman prompts the prophet Elisha to see possibilities in her life she never thought existed. Her longing for a child seems like the remotest possibility in the world! How often God's prophets are the people in the Bible who can see what life can be like when we believe in a God for whom all things are possible. The New Yorker magazine once contained a cartoon which depicted a group of convicts who were huddled in a circle on the floor of the cell block in their prison home. Spread out before them was a map of the prison grounds and on the map was a detailed route showing their planned escape. One of the prisoners turned to the leader of the group and said, "I wish you wouldn't keep saying 'This is where we are now'!" Like that man, the prophet was most interested in the possibilities of what God can do than he was in the past failures of his people.
When we start trusting God, even with the modicum of faith, all kinds of impossible things begin to happen. There is an old story about Hazel, a woman of sixty who lived in an apartment complex in a rundown neighborhood in a big city. Hazel liked to sing, but she had an off-key voice. Like most residents in big cities, Hazel and her other apartment neighbors feared being mugged or robbed. One night as she came back to her apartment she was frightened by a suspicious-looking man in her hallway. She began singing, "When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don't be afraid of the dark." She reached her apartment without incident. The next morning, stuck under her door was a note. It read: "Thanks for your song. I was ready to cash in my life, but you gave me hope."
When we start trusting God, even with the modicum of faith, all kinds of impossible things begin to happen. There is an old story about Hazel, a woman of sixty who lived in an apartment complex in a rundown neighborhood in a big city. Hazel liked to sing, but she had an off-key voice. Like most residents in big cities, Hazel and her other apartment neighbors feared being mugged or robbed. One night as she came back to her apartment she was frightened by a suspicious-looking man in her hallway. She began singing, "When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don't be afraid of the dark." She reached her apartment without incident. The next morning, stuck under her door was a note. It read: "Thanks for your song. I was ready to cash in my life, but you gave me hope."
