Impossible Dream

It's the new year and I've flipped back to the start of my Daily Chronological Bible. Today was the story of Abraham and Sara and some heavenly visitors. At the age when most people would say it's time to retire and enjoy a rocking chair...this elderly couple are told by 3 heavenly visitors that they are going to become parents for the first time. There is no mention of Abraham's reaction...he had been told for a long time that God make him a father of nations so I would hope he was thankful. But Sarah's reaction was recorded. She was listening to the conversation from inside the tent and she *LOL'd.

In Sarah's eyes her life did not add up to "new mother". She was 90, her retirement was set because Abraham was a good provider and menopause had hit probably 40 years earlier. She was wise in her own eyes, she knew better! So she laughed at these strangers and their news. Was her laughter happiness? Her thoughts betray her, she seems bitter and basically says God is too late.

So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Genesis 18:12

Skipping forward a few generations we come to another woman, a naive teenager really. She is also told by an angel that she is to have a son who will be Christ-the Messiah her people were waiting for. This young woman is not married but has plans to marry Joseph. Her life has just begun and now she is told she is going to be an unwed mother in a town that will stone her to death if they find out? How did Mary react? (I would be scared to death and ask if he had the right person!)

She had one question, she wanted to know how it would happen...she was curious. After a few facts, her reaction is recorded:

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. Luke 1:38

Two women with similar pronouncements: impossible pregnancies. Two women with totally different reactions: sarcasm and belief.

Now you may not have an angel show up in your living room to announce a miraculous birth. I will tell you that I bet there is a dream you have that you have not shared with anyone yet. It might be a new career path, an idea for a ministry, a book, an invention. Have you reacted like Sarah and almost talked yourself out of it? Or are you going to be like Mary and ask God how He's going to make it happen in your life?

I'd like to fan the flame of possibility in your mind by leaving you with wise words from two angels that new Who they were talking about.

Is anything too hard for the LORD? Genesis 18:14

For nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1:37



*LOL for those of us who are not text-savvy means "laugh out loud".