THE SET UP: I’ve been inside several nursing homes and I have yet to visit one that has a nursery in it. There aren’t a lot of births in a senior center. So, it’s not really surprising that when Sarah, a 98 year-old woman, overhears the Lord telling her husband that in the next year, she is going to become a first-time mother, Sarah laughed. It might have been one of those, “Laugh so you don’t cry,” situations. And who could blame her for laughing? In that culture and point in history, a woman’s identity was tied up in her ability to have children. All her life that had been her dream and seemingly a dream unfulfilled.
When you read today’s package, you’ll see that God had a simple question in response to Sarah’s chuckling doubt, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” What we think, and how we answer that question says a lot about how we see God and how we see our own lives. Sarah’s initial response was based in her human understanding of what was possible. But God spoke from his ability to do the impossible. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
In Luke chapter one, another woman, this time a young engaged teenager, is given a similar promise, “You will conceive and give birth to a son!” Mary doesn’t laugh, she’s too shocked. “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The messenger’s response, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Mary’s final response: “I am the Lord’s servant, may everything you said about me come true.”
Advent is a time to remember that one we are waiting for, the one we are anticipating, is the God of the impossible.
PASSAGE TO READ: Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
· If you were in Sarah’s shoes (a 98 year-old woman) how do you think you would have reacted when God said, “This time next year, Sarah will have a baby”? Can you blame her for laughing?
· Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” How do you see that applying to Sarah’s situation?
· Compare Sarah’s reaction to God’s promise to Mary’s reaction in Luke 1:38. What do you believe you can do to respond like Mary to God’s promise?
PRAYER: “God of the impossible, help me to see my life and your plan for it through eyes of faith, not through my own limitations. When your plans for my life seem so absurd I want to laugh or so overwhelming I want to cry, remind me that nothing is impossible for you. In Jesus’ name, amen.”