More jars, please!

How about letting love flow into every aspects of our experience? Into every niche, corner, nook of the mental landscape we call "my life"? Yes, of course, you will say. And there is one of those wonderful Bible stories which tells us, how. It is from the Old Testament book of Second Kings (The Living Bible):

"One day the wife of one of the seminary students came to Elisha to tell him of her husband’s death. He was a man who had loved God, she said. But he had owed some money when he died, and now the creditor was demanding it back. If she didn’t pay, he said he would take her two sons as his slaves.“What shall I do?” Elisha asked. “How much food do you have in the house?”
“Nothing at all, except a jar of olive oil,” she replied.
“Then borrow many pots and pans from your friends and neighbors!” he instructed.  “Go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Then pour olive oil from your jar into the pots and pans, setting them aside as they are filled!”
So she did. Her sons brought the pots and pans to her, and she filled one after another!  Soon every container was full to the brim!
“Bring me another jar,” she said to her sons. “There aren’t any more!” they told her. And then the oil stopped flowing!
When she told the prophet what had happened, he said to her, “Go and sell the oil and pay your debt, and there will be enough money left for you and your sons to live on!”

I can see the woman so active, so in need of support, of a life. I can see her including the neighbors into the solution. I can see all kinds of containers being brought in, jars, vessels, pots, pans in all sizes and shapes. I can see the oil not caring about those different sizes and shapes, finding its way effortlessly into every niche, corner, nook...

Whenever I feel that nothing is moving forward or has come to a stop, I am reminding myself to bring out another jar. I also regard an aspect of my experience in need of healing as a jar, which hasn't been brought out yet. And I remind myself to fill it with these qualities which Mary Baker Eddy sees in the word "oil" as presented in the Bible (p. 592 of Science and Health):

"Oil. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." 

This woman with her two sons is not just a distant sister, her story is a deeply spiritual parable with a timeless message. It is like a thought mine, it brings inspiration and healing. Like her, we can take an unsolved problem, a need, a question, take it in our hands and bring it inside, to be filled with gentleness and prayer. That will do.