Dear parents,
It’s been a busy few weeks leading up to spring break. I’m hoping to not hear the word “leak” in reference to gas or water for a few days! But even through all of that, God has been so faithful and gracious. Whether it was our amazing faculty and staff executing a last-minute move or you, our families, giving us incredible support and grace during these challenges, the community of Heritage Prep has risen to the occasion yet again. Thank you.
The story the Lord brought to my attention this week was of the widow and her jar of oil found in 2 Kings 4:1-7. A widow who has just lost her husband cries out to Elisha to help her as the creditors seek to take her two sons into slavery for her debts. Elisha asks the widow a simple question, “What do you have?” She responds that all she has is a jar of oil. Elisha then instructs her to collect as many empty jars as possible, from her friends and neighbors, and to bring them into her house with her two sons, close the door, and begin to fill the jars from her one jar of oil. We don’t know how many jars the sons were able to gather, but Elisha did tell her to collect more “than just a few.” The widow follows Elisha’s instructions and begins filling the jars. When she fills the last empty jar, we read that the oil ceased.
There are so many lessons to be learned from that story, but the one that stood out to me this week was the fact that an empty jar was needed for God to show up and fill it. As long as an empty jar was available, the oil continued. When the last empty jar was filled, the oil stopped. I find myself so often bringing a jar full of all of my “stuff” with me into my relationship with God—my agenda, my dreams, my needs—and asking Him to move in my life. Is it any wonder that I so often become frustrated with His seeming lack of attention? There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things. But In those times where God has moved mightily, it has been when I have shown up empty, willing to be filled and used by Him for His glory.
As we enter a week of “refueling” and “recharging”, it is my prayer that we would also seek to come before the Lord as an empty, albeit broken, vessel and allow Him to fill us with His presence and use us for His glory. When we do that, God is faithful to do in and through us those things that we have no ability to do on our own.
I pray you have an incredible week and that God meets you and fills you to capacity.
Blessings,
Matthew H. Skinner
President