A Little Oil

I sat on the side of the hospital bed.  My patient had not moved as I entered the room.  I touched her arm and spoke to her without any response.  I examined her and then moved over to where her son was sitting.

"With how bad her stroke is and how little she's responded so far, there's not much more that I can do," I said.  "It's probably best to keep her comfortable."

Her son nodded somberly. "Thank you," he said.  "Thank you for being such a good doctor for her -- and thank you for being more than a doctor."

I sat silently.  I had done little.  I had no amazing skill or talent to bring, but somehow the little I had give over time had made a difference.  My mind flipped to a story from the Bible that I had read recently.

It was the story of a widow with heavy debt.  She and her sons were about to be sold into slavery to pay that debt and in desperation, she went to the prophet Elisha and told him of her troubles.

Elisha asked her what she had in her home.  The answer was almost nothing.  If she'd had gold or silver or jewels, she would have used them to pay her debt already.  All she had was a little olive oil in a jar.

At this point, I suppose, she hoped that the prophet would tell her to go to a cave or dig behind the third date palm and she would find a huge treasure that would pay her debt off and buy her a new home in the suburbs.  Instead, the prophet told her to borrow every container she could find and pour her oil into them and then sell the oil to pay the debt.

So often, we look at the things we don't have or the talent we do not possess and wish that God would give us more.

That isn't His way.  God uses what we do have -- little as it is -- if we will but give it to Him and follow His way.  He would rather use a small town doctor who follows Him than all the specialists out there who follow their own path.

A little oil in God's hands is worth more than an oil well gushing out oil in the desert.  Better to give Him the little that we have and watch Him multiply it and help us bless others in the process.