In a Bible account, the prophet Elijah is en route to Zarephath in the middle of a famine (see I Kings 17:1–16). God has told him to go there and that when he arrives, a “widow woman” there will sustain him. When he finds her, she tells him that she doesn’t have enough to spare and that she is making what little she does have for herself and her son—and then preparing to die. In the face of all this lack and despair, he says to her, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” 

I often wondered what she thought when he asked her to do this. That maybe he hadn’t heard her or was just incredibly selfish? Also, as a Phoenician, she was most likely a worshiper of Baal, so would not typically be receptive to a request from a Hebrew prophet. But she makes the cake anyway, and the food just seems to multiply. The Bible then tells us that, in fact, he, she, and her household ate for many days, and their supplies didn’t run out until the famine ended.

There is nothing that can separate us from ever-present good. It is our permanent, God-given home.