Secret Ingredient
By Elin Henderson
“…‘Serve it to the people so they may eat.’ And there was nothing harmful in the pot…So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.”
II Kings 4: 41b & 44 (NKJV)
Maybe it’s part of my Greek heritage, but I love to cook food and feed people! Ask my husband! Before a big party, all of us entertainers have our worries, though, about how things will turn out. My two main worries usually are: Will the food turn out okay? And, will there be enough?
I remember one time my dad made homemade ice cream but added to the actual ice cream mixture the four cups of salt meant to keep the ice from melting! For the life of him, he couldn’t get the ice cream to solidify. Let’s just say we had a lot of leftovers that no one would touch!
Then, of course, there are those times when a party of four turns out to be a party of eight or more and the menu has to be stretched to feed the multitude. This inevitably happens whenever the Mozambique government guys come for a visit (along with the expected “lunch” of sorts); I am always at a loss on how much food to prepare. One visit it will be four guys and the next visit 24!
In his entertaining, Elisha faced these two worries back-to-back in II Kings 4: 38-44. First of all, he sends his workers out to prepare a bit of supper and, unknowingly, one brings back poisonous gourds and makes a stew out of them. After a few bites, they cry out, “There’s death in the pot!” Then, Elisha takes some flour and miraculously purifies the pot and makes the food good for eating.
Just after that, food is brought as an offering to Elisha and his crew, only it isn’t enough. This is quickly pointed out to him and he says, “Give it to the people and they shall eat; for thus says the LORD, ‘they shall eat and have some left over.’” And that is exactly what happened. They were provided for above and beyond what was needed.
When the secret ingredient is God, even our ignorant, silly and inadvertent mistakes can be made right, and even our inadequacies become more than enough. Only He can take and turn something from deadly into delicious and insufficient into incredible! Trust Him with the mistakes and inadequacies of your humanness, realizing He is the overpowering secret ingredient!
GOING DEEPER:
1. Are there any mistakes you have made that seem to have serious consequences? Using Psalm 139:23-24, what can you do with those mistakes (even the ignorant ones)?
FURTHER READING:
Psalm 51:7,10; Ephesians 3:20
Oakwood’s missionaries Elin Henderson and her husband Phil serve as church planters with New Tribes in Mozambique, Africa. Elin is mother to ten-year-old Callie and eight-year-old Elias.
