At New Life Church (my Colorado Springs church) today, the insightful Pastor Brady Boyd preached from 1 Kings 17. He taught about the story of the prophet Elijah and the widow at Zarephath (1 Kings 17:7-16). Due to a 3-year drought that Elijah had announced, this poor widow and her son had lost all hope.

In fact, when she encounters Elijah, she is preparing her last meal for her and her son before they starve to death. Talk about hopeless.

Then came Elijah, who initially appears to make things worse for her. Upon hearing what she was doing, Elijah–seemingly callously–tells her to make bread for him before feeding her son or having anything herself. He tells her, “Don’t be afraid” (v 13), which seems to be another strange demand. However, he offers her a small glimmer of hope when he follows up with this promise:

Still, this is a tough situation for this woman. She is asked to trust God not only with her life, but also her son’s. On my best days, I like to think that I would trust God with my life, but honestly, I don’t know if I could say that I would trust Him so completely with my child’s life.

But here’s the thing: God blesses them because she is willing to hold on loosely to her and her son’s lives. He keeps His promise, and the flour and olive oil never run out.

So as it turns out, Elijah brought this woman hope in the form of a promise from God. This becomes an example for us, not only as another lesson that God keeps His promises, but also to remind us that we are to be carriers of hope to the people we meet. And just as Elijah faithfully delivered a message that initially made no sense (“feed me before you or your son eat, even though you’re about to starve to death”), so we are also called to convey hope to our friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and everyone else, even if what we say is nonsensical to them.

Hope does not always make sense. But it carries us through the darkest of days.

This is what Jesus did. He spoke hope into a hopeless world, even if what He said didn’t make sense to most people who heard Him. His message lit up the darkness, chased it away. His life and death showed us once again that God keeps His promises.

That’s the message of hope that we are to carry with us everywhere we go, and share freely.