In 2 Kings 4, a widow with many creditors sought the prophet Elisha’s help. Elisha asked her what she had in her house. She replied that all that she had was a small pot of oil. “Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.” (2 Kings 4:3-4). The woman was able to fill all of her neighbors’ vessels with her one small pot of oil and with this oil she was able to pay all her debts and have enough left over for her and her children to live on. As I thought about this story in which a woman who had oil and asked her neighbors to give them their empty vessels so that she could fill them, I couldn't help but compare this situation to the parable of the ten virgins. That is another example of neighbors coming with their empty vessels and asking for them to be filled with oil. Perhaps waiting until the last possible moment made these virgins with their empty vessels foolish, but I think that we should look to the widow helped by Elijah as an example about how we should share our oil. This widow went to every one of her neighbors and helped fill each of their vessels with oil. It was only by borrowing vessels from all of her neighbors that she was able to be saved. Likewise, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to reach out to every one of our neighbors to fill their vessels with the oil of our testimony. If that widow had only asked for the vessels of one or two of her closest friends, she wouldn't have been able to gain enough oil to pay off all of her debts. If we don't fill the vessels of as many of our neighbors as we possibly can, then we will lose out on the opportunity to fill heaven with more and more of our friends and neighbors. I hope that we will not wait until the last minute but that we will follow the example of the widow with her small pot of oil and borrow the vessels from as many neighbors as we can and fill all of them to the brim with oil.
