The words ‘Stone Soup’ come from a well-known European folk tale with slightly varying versions in different countries, such as France, Hungary, Russia, Portugal and Germany. The story follows the line of a weary traveller, or travellers, who enter a village; sometimes depicted as soldiers returning from war.
The story then follows, that these weary men, having once asked for help, are turned away by the villagers, who say they have nothing to give. Unperturbed by the villager’s denial or lack of response, the soldiers hatch a plan to seek these same villagers’ help, to add some ‘flavour’ to what they have called a pot of ‘stone soup.’
Fooled by this device, and perhaps spurred on by the opportunity to share in a pot of ‘tasty’ stone soup, the villagers, one by one, begin to offer a small tasty morsel or two, to ‘add’ to the simmering pot, whereby ‘enhancing’ its once ‘bland’ flavour. This finally culminates in a community effort that reaps great results, as “each one does it’s part.” – See Ephesians 4:16 KJV.
The Apostle Paul said to the saints at Ephesus,
“And He Himself (speaking of Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Ephesians 4:11 – 16
See also, Romans chapter 12; 1 Corinthians chapter 12; and Ephesians 6:11.
These specific words then came to me:
“We can do much better together, than what we can do on our own. The secret is in making a start!
- God speaks a thing (the power is in the word)
- We respond
- God does it
What was once hopeless becomes hopeful. And we see those very things begin to take place that God has spoken. People who were once grasping at straws are grasping at straws no longer – They have something substantial to hold onto!”
Have you prayed for someone today?
