I am sorry for the delay in sending this.  And this is shorter than it looks.  I put in a lot of spaces for the conversations and such.

 

Have you felt tapped out recently?  I mean we had the hurricane in Texas (Harvey), then Irma, then the earthquake, and flooding, and then, and then….Wow!  What is one to do!

 

When I was a child, I heard a folktale that I now know as nail soup.  Variations of this story pop up every once in a while.  I am going start today’s sharing by sharing the version I heard.

 

Once upon a time there was an old man who came into a small town, A teeny tiny town. A village, really. He was kind of shaggy looking, but not in a mean, angry way.  He went up to the door of the first house he came to, and began to knock. At first, she did not answer, but he had seen an older woman peek through the curtain.  So, he continued to knock. Finally, he heard her say, “Oh, for goodness sake! Why doesn’t he go away!” She opened `to the door.” Then, again, she heard a quiet, “Knock, Knock.”  She got up, shuffled to the door and asked what he wanted (I am sure she said it nicely – aren’t you?”.  She had nothing, she said.  “I am within a day of starvation.  I have no food and no money for you to take.”  Surely, he would leave now. She started to shut the door; but he didn’t back up. 

 

“I don’t have money either,” he said. “So, I know how you feel.” 

–

 I know your kind, she said, if I let you in you won´t leave before you have eaten everything I have. And I tell you, I´m so poor I haven´t had a bite for two days. So you just go away!”  However, she found herself opening the door.

 

“Thank you! I only need a warm place to sleep.” He said as he walked past her and into the living room.”  When she looked past him she saw that there were drops of rain just beginning to fall. She wanted to say no. She oughta say no. But then she said with a humph,”Okay! But you sleep on the couch and I’ll have a shovel right next to my bed.” (Now remember I said this was a long time ago when you can trust people a little bit more.) So she pointed toward the couch and he sat. She went to the hallway closet and brought out an old pillow and old blanket and an old sheet. There was no use in making anyone feel like they might want to stay any longer than one night. She went back to the couch and handed him the things that she brought out of the hall closet.  Now don’t expect any food she said. Neither one of us is eating tonight. The man jumped off the couch and said, “don’t worry I will feed us a meal fit for a king. She looked at the guy and saw no bags, no pockets that were big enough to hide food in. “I don’t see where you have it,” she said.

 

“I carry it right here he said.” He pulled a bent nail out of his pocket. She rolled her eyes,”You’re kidding.” She said. “Oh No! I’m going to make nail soup for us tonight.” Great she got a Looney Tune…Just what I need for tonight.”

 

“I do need a pot. Probably need a big one we might have leftovers for you to have tomorrow, probably enough for your neighbors too!  Bring a HUGE pot!”

 

He put the nail into the pot and ran the water over the nail. “Yummy this will be a meal like no other. Sigh, it would be good if we had just a little bit of salts or seasonings you know I kind of like my soup to be seasoned just a little bit. Still, it will be as good as gold.”  He kept stirring. She said, “Oh wait a minute I think I have a little bit of salt and herbs in the cabinet. These were left over from Easter.” She gave him the seasonings. He carefully looked at it.  “Beautiful. Herbs do not expire.” She watched as he carefully smelled and portioned out the herbs and seasonings into the pot.

: Perfect! He said rather loudly. “Isn’t it to just wait and watch it come to a boil. Growing up I always like some vegetables in here. My mom said I was the only kid in the area that would eat vegetables.” He stirred and stirred the ‘soup.’

 

After watching him stir the pot a bit more she exclaimed,”Wait a minute! She said “I think I have some dry it out old vegetables down in the cellar.”

 

“Why that would be awesome! You know dried out vegetables become plump again when you put them in soup.” She was catching his excitement as she exclaimed, “I’ll get them!” You know, she saw him start with just a bent nail but boy it was starting to smell pretty good. “Nail Soup.” As she was thinking, the man started talking, “Now, the thing about Nail Soup is that it is the best when shared. I’m so glad you’re here. If I don’t have somebody to share it with… It just tastes like plain “Ole nothin’.”. He was humming and stirring. “I have served this soup to many, many folks. Why it’s fit to serve to a King.  Well I would add a bit of meat or a bone with some meat on it.”

 

She slapped her knees and said “I got it! Downstairs, in the cellar, I have an old ham bone with a little bit of meat left on it I think. Not much though.”

“Not much?! Why that’s the makings of a king’s soup! Bring it on!!”

 

She ran to get the hambone. She could not believe she was going to have such a delectable smelling soup. She was starting to just imagine being before the king. She began to hum as well. “You know,” she said, as she gave him the bone, “I think since it’s a meal fit for a king, we should actually put my best dishes and silver.” And so they did.  And the soup was so filling.  Both of them had full bellies after that. He said he would put away the extra soup.  What she did not know was he used every container that she had. She had fallen asleep long before he made his bed. 

 

In the morning, the woman rushed out of her bedroom. Overnight she was awoke with a thought. What a great thing this would be to share with the neighbors. There was so much soup left over that it could feed the people in her small neighborhood. Everybody’s looking for jobs and surely this would be helpful until jobs were found. She would ask the gentleman if she could buy the nail from him. Surely if the neighbors all learned about the nail and tasted it, they could pitch in whatever they had in order to make this wonderful soup. To her horror, the sheets and blanket and old pillow were acts neatly the corner of the couch. She checked the bathroom, and he wasn’t there either. He had gone. ‘OH NO! She  exclaimed. Tears filled her eyes. However, as she sat down at the table in order to just mourn the loss she felt, she saw it. In her place in the middle of her knitted placemat was the nail from last night.

 

I know you probably get the point.  Even when we feel we have done everything for something for people who have suffered, something else comes up.  And…if we follow the story, we can scrounge around and find what we need to provide for it all – with God’s help.  You may think that it is easy to find a made up story to encourage us to give and give and ok, give some more.  But what does scripture say?  There isn’t any thing like this in scripture – right?

The one most close to this story is “The story of the widow woman.”

2 Kings 4:1-7 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.”

2 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.”

3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 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.”

5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 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.

7 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.”

 

Oh! There are so many scriptures that let us know about the provision God gives us!

Here are a few more that come to mind. However, there are many verses of God’s provision.

16:12

 

For the greatest gift, better that food or drink, we receive a gift that we cannot find within our homes or ourselves.  We are given a gift better than any earthly thing.  We have our Lord.  We are given eternal life.  We will be satisfied.

 

4:14

 

Can you think of others?

Prayer:  Dear Lord,

We understand that our tithes are there to support the running of the church and the support of all staff.  Yet you also ask for our offerings after that.  Help us when we reach for our offerings.  Whether there is a little need that we can see or a big need, or a bunch of needs – help our offering flow easily from our pockets to Your Hands.  When the need seems too big, or we have already given to one suffering, help us look further for the dried vegetables that can be given.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

Pastor Charlene