Elijah and the widow of Zarepheth - with all of its wondrous, miraculous content, is still a warm and human story, filled with so many details reflecting everyday life in the eighth century B.C.

Times were once better for this widow. Her house has an upper room, an indicator of some prosperity. But after her husband died, it must have been a few years ago, things went from bad to worse. One by one all the servants had to be let go, even the last one. Now she was out having to scrounge for her own fire wood with which to bake the bread, using their last measure of wheat. There had been a drought, a severe one. Palestine was prone to that. Periodically, there were such crop failures and famines. And people just died. It would get to the point where there was no food anywhere. So they just die…