Fill your jars and not a few

Even running the dishwasher daily, we run out of cups, at least those suitable for adults. We still have reserves of Barney and Mickey Mouse plastic sippy cups. I don't know how my mother managed, especially at holidays having to shop, prepare, and clean up after 7 people. I am not complaining- I wouldn't trade this week of family here for all the clean cups in China, but it is a daunting job mothering a crew this size.

And then there are all the very different personalities with all their particular quirks to try to blend and keep happy together. They are as unique in their make up as different species....and we know zookeepers put bars up between different species. Nonetheless, the group seems happy, mostly because I throw them steaks and bourbon balls and fudge, I think.

But every morning while they are all still snoring in their caves, I unload the dishwasher full of cups to replenish the supply. And I gather cups left behind from the night before, most empty but some with remnants of hot cocoa, hot cider, or bizarre concoctions Matt is famous for. Cups. The Bible has alot to say about cups, and filling them.

When Elisha, the prophet was alive, Israel was in dire straits. There were hungry widows everywhere he turned. I love how he responded to one widow's cries for help when she was out of money and food and the creditors were about to drag her sons away as slaves.

He tells her to gather empty cups. She only has one. (I can relate as last night we didn't even have one). So Elisha, whose name FYI means saved, tells her to go get all the neighbors' jars and gather as many empty ones as she can. Now this seems a strange way to occupy your time when the creditors are on their way, but she obeys. When she returns with all the empty cups, Elisha tells her that now she is ready to invite Vicky's family to dinner as she now has enough cups. Nah! Had you going there for a minute, didn't I? Actually he tells her now she can pour her last drop of oil into the empty cups, and miraculously it keeps pouring until every cup is full. She can now sell the oil and save her sons. All because of empty cups gathered to be filled.

I didn't understand that story at first. I knew the superficial message, that if we obey God and His messengers, things tend not to result in being turned into pillars of salt...but the metaphor of the empty cup had not quite percolated into my awareness. Now I think I understand it a little more, at least from a different persprctive,the perspective of the cup.

I think we are all empty cups, waiting to be filled by God. We can be filled far beyond what is possible when we are gathered by the hand of God and His Messengers. Without Him, we remain scattered, and empty. With Him, even empty cups can save others from bondage.

Kind of makes me look at empty cups with new respect.

2 Kings 4:1-7 NIV

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?"
"Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a small jar of olive oil." Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side." She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one."
But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

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