| The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” |
| —Exodus 4:2 |
During the years of my public-school teaching, one year I had my third graders put on a musical play based on the legend of Stone Soup. This old story has been told in various cultures and in various renditions.
In our particular play, three soldiers returning from war stumbled into a village they had visited before the war where they had found the villagers happy and generous. But now, these people suffered from poverty and heartless selfishness brought on by war and had no food or lodging to share with these men.
Through a stroke of creative thinking, one of the soldiers asked for a stone with which to make a special soup. The puzzled villagers filled a caldron with water, placed a stone in the caldron, and set the caldron on a fire. Once the “soup” was hot, the soldiers asked them to taste it.
One of the peasants tasted the stone soup and decided it needed an onion. That villager went quickly home and brought back an onion and put it into the soup.
Another peasant tasted the soup and decided it would taste much better if it had a carrot. That peasant went quickly home and brought back a carrot, which he put into the soup.
Still another peasant tasted the soup and declared that the soup needed some herbs. So, that peasant went quickly home and brought back some herbs, which she quickly put into the soup.
One by one, the villagers added various ingredients that they felt the soup needed until their individual efforts all merged and produced a succulent broth that became a meal for everyone present. They ate, sang, and spent the day rejoicing and bringing back to their small town the happiness it had once known. The Stone Soup story teaches the moral that when people each give what they have, all of them can then enjoy a magnificent supply of wonderful things.
In Scripture, we read of several places where God asked people to give what they had, even from the depth of their poverty. As a result, God used what they gave with miraculous results.
1 Kings 17:7-17 provides an account of a widow in Zarephath whom God sent Elijah to visit when he, too, needed food. The widow, obedient to Elijah’s request for bread, had only a handful of flour and a little oil, but she gave it to feed Elijah because she believed he spoke to her about the true God. This Bible account goes on to tell how, after she obeyed, the jar of flour was not used up, nor the jug of oil. She had every bit of flour and oil that she needed to feed herself and her household for many days.
Similarly in the New Testament story of the Marriage at Cana from John 2:1-11, Jesus showed His power to spare the bridegroom great embarrassment by turning six stone jars of water into delicious wine. In this story, we see the point of Jesus’ miracles when, in John 2:11, the Scripture states:
He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
Remember the boy who came to listen to Jesus with the five thousand others? Jesus saw that these people, too, needed food with no supply. This story, recorded in John 6:1-14, shows us again how His miracle of taking the boy’s five small loaves and two small fish, gave witness to His power among the people.
In these three Bible stories, we find the same happy ingredients:
- A known and expressed need.
- A willing and obedient servant.
- God wanting to reveal Himself to His people.
The bottom line for all these, as in the story of Stone Soup, resulted in gladness and rejoicing.
Most of us have experienced a poverty of some kind, whether spiritual, financial, or material. Sometimes, God asks of us the last bit of strength we have so that He can make it into a glowing example of His power and grace. At other times, He may ask of us service for which we do not naturally feel suited. Still other times, He may ask us to give to Him from our nearly exhausted resources in order to accomplish His purposes.
God wants us all to render praise to Him and experience the joy that comes from obediently giving Him all that we have. Oftentimes, such an action on our part allows others to rejoice in God’s goodness to us, and we’re as happy as though we discovered the secret recipe to Stone Soup!
