Mind a jar? by Nicky Wilkinson

 

Courtesy of  https://micahhayns.com/

Every blog I have written is a miracle because, sitting in front of a new page I have no idea what is going to flow from my fingers beyond the first word. But God has been faithful in answering my prayers and month by month has helped me find things to share even when I felt empty. 

Which reminds me of the miracle story in 2 Kings 4, when Elisha instructed a desperate widow to gather her friends’ empty jars and fill them with oil when she had no resources of her own and her circumstances were dire. She did not know what would happen next, she had only her hope and desperation and the words of a wise man. 

So often I have sat in front of this computer, blog required, feeling empty. Wanting to write, but in a feeling common to most writers, not knowing what to write about. From the start, the proposition of 24 blogs seemed overwhelming, but each month, one by one the words have flowed, and each page has been filled. Friends have provided a stimulus, knowingly or not, sometimes when I thought I had nothing to give, in my emptiness I found  enough words to fill a blog. Sometimes, not having a library of published Booker Prize winners behind me, I have felt like an imposter – me a writer?

Yet ideas like jars of inspiration have come from exploiting my failings by researching solutions from others and learning from others blogs.  

At times I have struggled too with the temptation to share my faith more than my nascent writing experience. There is a fine line to be walked in these blogs: neither writing a devotional or a dispassionate workshop, but I have seen how brilliantly others have brought balance.

For the widow, the oil was life itself. The stakes for me are rather lower. But like the widow and the psalmist I have found abundance. 

Psalm 23:5-6 (NIV) 

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Nicky Wilkinson is a cheery grandmother of 6. She lived abroad for 25 years in Czech Republic and Zimbabwe where she was involved with education. Today she writes, runs, plays her saxophone and guitar, not all at the same time.