Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to (Elijah): “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”

1 Kings 17:7-9

The drought continued in Elijah’s time. After all, God had said “neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). Eventually, the brook had to dry up. But who’d have thought God would send Elijah to a widow’s home for food, considering she was on her last bit of flour and oil.  

When we returned to Texas in September, we had no idea our brook was drying up either. On a routine doctor’s visit, blood tests revealed that my husband had an intestinal bleed. Had there been any symptoms? Oh, a lack of energy, a little shortness of breath, but we’d been in the mountains. The poking and prodding and scoping began. Like Elijah we were going to have to subsist on the help of others in the face of unknowns.

Surgery along with a five-day hospital stay followed. You can imagine where and how my days and nights were spent. There, the so-called firmness of the bed, directly under the helicopter pad, plus the 4:30am strolls, became the things stories are made of.  

But in the silence of the night I found comfort. From my bed by the window the full Hunter’s moon was perfectly framed in the overhead extension of the roof above. Every time I awakened, I traced its path across the sky until I lost it on the horizon at dawn. As a friend called to mind: “the moon is always there in the sky, to show that God is faithful” (Psalm 89:37, Easy). Thank you Jesus—faithful, even when the brook runs dry. 

As a bonus the view from the window in the light of day was surprisingly not of the city skyline, but of a dense thicket of green. Smack-dab in the middle, a white steeple rose against the clear blue sky. Not to mention the morning I witnessed a flurry of activity at the admitting entrance following an overhead call for an obstetrical emergency—not the miracle of life for the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:22), nevertheless the miracle of life! 

All because the brook dried up!

Nancy P

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV 1973,1978,1984, unless otherwise noted.