Unimaginable

Luke 1:37 NRSV

[The angel said to Mary] “For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

Matthew 19:26 NRSV

Jesus looked at them and said, “For humans it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

I’m not entirely sure why I woke up with these words on my mind.  Even after I read all the available selections for today’s meditation, these words kept shouting in my head making sure I paid attention to them.   It is a lot like when you have an ear worm - some piece of music that keeps playing in your head no matter how hard you try to replace it.

There are so many things that seemed at one time to be impossible, not even counting the advances in technology.  In my mother’s lifetime, just 76 years, technology progressed from a horse drawn wagon bringing ice for her family’s icebox to the Space Shuttle.  I’m quite sure that many of the things we take for granted today would have seemed totally impossible to my grandparents.   

In March we fully expected that we would be able to come back to the sanctuary for Easter, or maybe just a short while after Easter.  Five months later we still aren’t there, but we are doing things that we would have considered impossible not all that long ago.  With the help of that impossible-seeming technology, we are reaching far beyond Selma with the Good News.  We thought that having meaningful worship with no building was well nigh impossible, but nothing will be impossible with God.

After a few weeks we realized that there are quite a few who normally attend in person worship but don’t have access to the technology.  That led us to realize that, although the homebound receive visits and communion, we have gone all this time thinking it was impossible to include them in Sunday worship.  After prayerful consideration, we started sending all of those folks print copies of the pastoral prayer, scripture, message and a script for the Lord’s Supper.  We had thought it was impossible to include the homebound in worship, but for God all things are possible.

In my own life there are so many things I thought would never be possible - college, for one.  Once I had received and claimed my call to the ordained ministry I began to understand that if God wanted me to do this, then a way would be made where there was no way that I could see.  It would take hard work to achieve the goal, but I knew it was achievable because for God all things are possible.

We do not know what the future holds, but what we do know is that if it is God’s desire that we continue to be His Church, a way will be made, even though it might seem that there is no way.  Because nothing will be impossible with God.

Loving God, who makes all good things possible, we thank you for the gift of faith.  We know that even the seemingly impossible can happen, for although it may be impossible for humans, for you all things are possible.  Amen.