Olive oil makes the world go around where I live. Property is measured in how many trees it possesses, how many kilos of olives it produces, and its subsequent liters of liquid gold. This year, one of my learning curves, is about this element of olive oil, and how it makes the world go around in Southern Spain.

For the last two years for Christmas, my landlord has brought me a bottle of olive oil from Montefrio, and it is some of the best. It's so good, I use it for tostadas and salads, and never for cooking. The other day I finally ran out and it was a sad moment.

And I asked God for more. See, I think God cares about the tiny details because that's what life is really made up of. The oil, the parking spaces we need in the city, the daily bread, that's why in what we call the Lord's prayer, He tells us we are to ask for it.

...give us our daily bread...

In the midst of Covid, Andrew and I lost the whole business and a lot of hope. Just as we lost the business, someone we owed money to, called it in, with no shame of understanding that I woke up crying every day because I knew I had lost another 300 euros.

We came back to Spain after several months in the US for the first round, and this time three years ago, we found ourselves confined again, the business we thought revived, dying a painful death.

So, one of the few moments that I have found to be helpful, I caught myself listening to a sermon, and in it, the speaker discussed the idea of the woman who was a widow, and had nothing, and was told to find alll the jars and fill them with her oil. And the oil didn't run out until all her debts were paid.

Andrew and I felt it keenly, and began to not only pray for our daily bread, but for more oil to come out of the jar. And for us, slowly and painfully, we have seen this petition answered over and over again.

Does this mean my bank account no longer runs dry or pretty close? No.

But two days after my bottle of oil ran dry last week, someone came to a party I threw for my husband's birthday, and said, here is oil from my land. Land that I happened to have facilitated as a sale last year.

I cried.

See, that party, I reluctantly threw. I was and still am tired. I've been sick twice with either stomach flu or a chesty cold in the last three weeks. Today still, the cough lingers and I probably will wait yet another day to return to the gym.

But, I threw that party. You see, Andrew and I both believe that what God gives us, we are to share and by doing so, God shows His deep, abiding, unending love to both us and those around us. This, in our world, is by throwing a party, having people over for coffee, going out to eat with them, and merely listening and spending time with them around a table.

I've had the worst coffee and the best meals and everything in between, and I can honestly say that those times are never wasted.

You see, God's invisible, intangible, but completely real Kingdom began and will end at a table. The last supper, was really just the first, and the Final Feast is still waiting for us.

And if it's good now, what awaits us? What food? What laughter and tears and holding your sides so you don't fall over with glee? What hugs and kisses and big ol' crocodile tears of pure joy?

And so, we see the oil come into the home when we least expect it, and we remember and wait for the Final Feast and its Joy without ceasing!