1999-07-09 - God of the Impossible

This week, I relearned the lesson God teaches me the most often: Sometimes I have to reach the end of my resources, so I will have to depend on His unlimited ones. The instances I will mention are just ordinary, everyday occurrences, but they were important to me. Pardon my digression here, but I think you will see my point. I needed to find a certain professor, and I was running short on time, but the parking lot was full. Technically there should have been room for my car, but someone had parked halfway into the last available space. In desperation, I appealed to the attendant, who allowed me to park where the employees do. I am not being facetious in saying that in itself was a minor miracle.

I went to the classroom where my professor was supposed to hold the class. He was not there. My university is enormous, and stretches over miles of city blocks. I had no idea what building he had moved the class to, so I went to an 8-story building I was very familiar with, hoping to use an in-house phone to find out where he had moved the class. The phone was out of order. Feeling very discouraged by now, to the point of tears, I went up to the 8th floor. I hoped to use a phone in the Academic Assistance Dept., or get directions to his office, but the line was hopeless. There was no way I could get through in time.

So I walked down a flight of stairs, trying to figure out what to do next. I looked over at the elevator, and there, waiting for the elevator, was the man for whom I was searching. Out of about a dozen classroom buildings, in an 8-story building, on a 22,000-student campus, there he was, in front of me -- in the same building, on the same floor, the same elevator (there are 8 on each floor, and I usually avoid elevators myself, to get the exercise). There is no way this could have happened without God's intervention.

The Bible is replete with stories that show unmistakably, God's provision of "impossible" assistance.

Hebrews 11:11-12 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Holy Bible, The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

The story of Abram /Abraham would not be as noteworthy if he and Sarai were just your typical, 30-something couple having a baby. In 1999, it's possible for a woman to give birth to a healthy baby in her 50's, if all the conditions are just right and she has the best medical care. But almost two millennia ago, for a man 99 years old to father a child, required the special intervention of God. Sarai and Abram had in fact given up, and taken things into their own hands with Hagar (See Genesis 16). They saw no hope.

But God is a God of the impossible. Just ask Mary Magdalene.

John 20:1-2 Early Sunday morning, (Greek: On the first day of the week.) while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. ² She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, They have taken the Lord s body out of the tomb, and I don t know where they have put him!"
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

To her finite mind, the only explanation was that someone had moved Jesus' body. Nothing else was possible. But God had a surprise for her.

John 20:14-16 She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. ¹⁵ "Why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?" She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him." ¹⁶ "Mary!" Jesus said. She turned toward him and exclaimed, "Teacher!" (Greek and said in Hebrew, "Rabboni," which means "Teacher.")
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

As with Lazarus, God had accomplished the ultimate "impossible" feat: He had brought back Someone from physical death. Are you feeling like you are drowning in a situation you just can't resolve? Don't you think that the God who raised Jesus from the dead, can solve your problems, too? There is nothing He can't handle. Ask Him today to help you remember and trust in His unlimited resources.

Jan

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