Isabelle Ambalavanar

As a mother, it often feels like you aren’t enough. You’re not caring enough, patient enough, knowledgeable enough. You’re not providing enough enrichment for your child’s brain or nutrients for their body. It feels like everything you do isn’t enough because you can always be doing more.

I have felt this weight, this worry, this shame, and like many mothers, I have wondered… Am I failing my daughter? But in this guilt, there is grace; God reminds us that when we are not enough, He is.

In 2 Kings 4:1-7, a widow, bearing the burden of her family’s debt, cries to Elisha for help. The creditor plans to settle the debt by taking her two children as slaves. She tells Elisha all she has in her possession is one jar of oil. 

He instructs her to borrow many empty vessels from her neighbors, bring them to her house, and fill them. Using what she had, she filled vessel after vessel until they were all full and the oil ceased. Elisha tells her to sell the oil, pay back her family’s debt, and use the rest for her family to live on. 

All she had was one jar of oil. It wasn’t enough, but God took what she had and He multiplied it. He made it more than enough. With so little, God can do so much. In fact, this is where He does His best work. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” (2 Corinthians 12:9). In our weaknesses, He can provide, protect, and profuse. 

But this story reminds us of something else, too: God calls us to ask for help. Elisha instructed her to borrow from her neighbors, who were willing to give up their empty vessels. Our sovereign and almighty God could have found a way without them, so I believe this request was thoughtful and deliberate. God calls us to ask for help, for love, and even for sacrifice from others. He calls us to “carry each other’s burdens,” (Galatians 6:2). It can feel weak and embarrassing to ask for help sometimes because it only reaffirms that we can’t do it on our own… But this is what God intends for us- that we may love and rely on each other. And through this love, others may see His love.

When we are not enough, we look to the grace of God and the grace of others. We were never meant to be enough on our own.