Sacrifice: Enough

Russian Icon of Elias, Wikimedia Commons

The house next to my in-laws' house has been partway though a construction project for a couple years now, and there has been no work done in well over a year.  The owner of the house began the project assuming he would get funding that never materialized, and so the house stands half-finished, clad in plywood and plastic sheets.

It's a terrible position to be in, and one to be avoided:  having begun a project and lacking the resources to finish.  I think sometimes that is the reason we are unwilling to freely give of ourselves when we are called to make sacrifices.  The sacrifice I am often called to make at this season of my life is pacing with a crying, struggling, tired-but-not-sleeping baby.  As the minutes crawl past, I grow impatient, fearing that I will come to the end of my endurance before the baby is asleep (it hasn't happened yet).  I forget that God gives grace sufficient for every sacrifice He asks of me.

The lesson yesterday was the story of the prophet Elias, who at the command of God went to stay with a widow and her son.  As he arrives, he asks her for a little water and something to eat.  She replies that she is just gathering sticks to cook a meal of the last food she has in the house "that we may eat it, and die."  Elias replies, "Fear not, ... For this saith the Lord the God of Israel, The pot of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished until the day wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth."  God will provide what is needed for the things He asks.