While You're Up

"Beulah, while you're up, would you warm up my coffee?" my dad was heard saying by a visiting relative.

"Beulah, while you're up..." Mama's nephew exclaimed, "I always wondered what your name was, now I know! "It's 'Beulah, while you're up!'"

(Beulah was Mama's name, a very beautiful name from the Bible, which means favored and blessed of the Lord).

I was thinking of that this morning at breakfast when I went for a forgotten item and my husband requested, "Thelma, while you're up, would you get me some more coffee?"

It reminded me of the story from the Bible about the widow and Elijah.  At  the Lord's command, Elijah had been hiding out from the wicked king, Ahab. at the brook, Cherith. There he was fed by ravens until the brook dried up, then God directed him to go to Zarepath where a widow woman would sustain him.

 I Kings 17:10-11, "So he arose and went to Zarepath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand."

 Evidently, "While you're up," goes way back!