“You are going to have a baby boy, he will be called the Son of the Highest, and he will reign over the house of David forever.”
The angel had just delivered this strange message to Mary. No mention of how it will happen, so like any practical young women, Mary asks for a hint. “Ah well, the Holy Spirit…And here’s proof that nothing is impossible with God: Your aged relative, Elizabeth, is pregnant, and by the way, she’s having a boy.”
Nothing is impossible with God. Who could doubt it? Mary didn’t.
But lots of us do, apparently.
Generations before that, Sarah laughed when she heard she would have a son. She was old. It was impossible. She couldn’t have a baby when she was young, for Pete’s sake! Her Heavenly visitor wasn’t impressed, and asked her husband, “Why did she laugh? Is anything too hard for the Lord?” I can hear him thinking, What’s her problem? The Lord sent the message, for Pete’s sake!
And it wasn’t just the women who balked at God’s messages. Remember when Jeremiah was in what looked like an impossible situation (Jeremish 32) when God told him to buy a piece of land because “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land“? He went ahead and bought it, but what happens next is almost funny, it sounds so much like we would do. He prays and, first, praises God, saying, “Nothing is too hard for you. After all, look at all you’ve done.” And then, “But, look! The city is in the hands of the Chaldeans! And you made that happen!” In other words, I hear ya, but I don’t understand what is going on here!!!
Jeremiah’s is a long story, but what strikes me about it is this: God, in the midst of Jeremiah’s confusion, reminds him of his starting point, which is often our starting point until time gets us looking more at the problem than the promise, “Is there anything too hard for me?”
In the middle of my mess, can I look at the promises God has made, at the things he said he will do, and actually believe they will happen because, after all, nothing is impossible to him? Will I buy the land, say yes to the plan, speak to the mountain, believe I receive the impossible?
“He [Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and beling fully convinced that what he had promised He was able to perform” (Romans 4:19-21).
FAY ROWE 