What marvellous "coincidences" are prepared by Providential grace! The
poor widow is unconsciously ordained to entertain the prophet! The ravens
will be guided to the brook Cherith! "I have commanded them to feed thee
there." Our road is full of surprises. We see the frowning, precipitous
hill, and we fear it, but when we arrive at its base we find a refreshing
spring! The Lord of the way had gone before the pilgrim. "I go to
prepare ... for you."
But how strange that a widow with only "a handful of meal" should be
"commanded" to offer hospitality! It is once again "the impossible" which
is set before us. It would have been a dull commonplace to have fed the
prophet from the overflowing larder of the rich man's palace. But to work
from an almost empty cupboard! That is the surprising way of the Lord. He
delights to hang great weights on apparently slender wires, to have great
events turn on seeming trifles, and to make poverty the minister of "the
indescribable riches of Christ."
The poor widow sacrificed her "handful of meal," and received an unfailing
supply. And this, too, is the way of the Lord.
"Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee,
Repaid a thousand fold will be."