Happy Hanukkah!

I have had the privilege this season to have hired and worked with a young Jewish lady; a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I also hired her roommate, and close friend who is an Evangelical Christian, and a Worship Leader at her church. That must be an interesting household!

Our discussions during this Christmas season have often gone to the Jewish Hanukkah festival, and some of the interesting customs associated with it. There is a marvelous story associated with the original Hanukkah time. While there is dispute among some "scholars" as to whether this story is true, it is widely accepted among Jewish people, and I choose to accept it myself. It seems that when the followers of the Maccabees set about purifying and rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem after it had been defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes, they found that there was only one day’s worth of the sacred oil necessary to keep the lamps burning. It would take eight days to properly prepare a new supply of the oil. The one day supply of the oil was caused by God to miraculously last throughout this eight day period until the new oil was ready!

This is not totally unlike the story I read this morning in 1 Kings 17: 10-16. This is the story where Elijah meets a woman who has only enough oil and flour to last for one more meal. She obeys what the Lord tells her to do through Elijah, and prepares a meal first for Elijah from what she has left, and then for herself and her son. Miraculously, her oil and flour lasted indefinitely as she continued to feed Elijah, as well as herself and her son.

In my last post, I talked about how God has provided for all my needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19). It occurs to me as I reflect on the Hanukkah story, and on the story of Elijah, that God does indeed provide for us. He most often does this, not by giving us more of what we think we need, but by making what we have enough!

I think that this extends not only to material things, but to the spiritual things as well. I often feel like I don’t have enough talent, or knowledge, or confidence, or whatever, to do a particular thing. In the end, if it is His will, and I am led by His Spirit; what I have, together with what He brings into the equation is enough.

Happy Hanukkah! Remember the miracle of the oil!

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.