Picking up from last week, directed by the word of Yehovah, Elijah came to the home of a widow in Sidon, north of Israel’s border. She had helped Elijah when he was hungry and homeless. She let him stay in her home, in the small room upstairs. She hid him from King Ahab’s spies. And, now, this! Her son was struck down with an illness. Was this the reward for her hospitality and kindness.
Who is she? What is her name? We were never told, and now it’s buried in a history archeology cannot retrieve. Her son is nameless too. Nameless, and yet we know them. We know about widows, we know the sons of single moms. There were a mass of them in biblical times and hundreds of thousands more today. We may not know the specifics of their personal identities, but we know enough to draw us into their dramas.