Article October 19, 1987 Issue

Gather spiritual fruits in times of need

Debt, unemployment, worry about our family's future—these are not the table divine Love prepares for its children.

Thelma Shipman Schroeder

At one point when our children were young, we were barely making ends meet. After a long time of unemployment, my husband had received his first week's paycheck, and he gave it to me to manage. In my eagerness to pay as many of our past-due bills as quickly as possible, I failed to reserve enough food money for the week. Borrowing money was out of the question; we still owed payments on so many bills! My parents, who lived nearby and would have been happy to help if they could, were barely eking out a living for themselves.

It was Tuesday, and there wasn't enough food in the house to feed the four of us until payday on Saturday. On Wednesday morning I crawled out of bed much earlier than usual to study the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly. I reached out in prayer to my heavenly Father-Mother God. I felt the need of fresh food for thought. The lesson that week couldn't have been more fitting. It contained an account of what the prophet Elijah did during a famine and drought.^{See I Kings 17:1-16 .}

When even the brook that gave Elijah water had dried up, the Bible states, "The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath ... and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." After his long journey, Elijah must have been hungry as he arrived at Zarephath. He saw a widow gathering sticks, and the Bible records that he asked her for something to eat. "I have ... but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die."

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