From Mary’s first encounter with the angel to God incarnate making His long awaited appearance in a dusty stable; every page is streaked with improbability; woven with strands of wonder.
And for a brief moment, we suspend our disbelief and enter into a world far beyond the limits of our finite understanding, reveling in the glorious impossibility of God’s master plan.
For we, of course, have the advantage of knowing how it all turns out.
“Of course He can do it!” we encourage Mary, who asks with utter astonishment how she could possibly carry the Messiah in her womb.
“Believe her!” we urge Joseph as he wrestles with doubt and disbelief at the momentous calling God has placed on his betrothed.
“It’s true!” we proclaim to the sleepy shepherds unable to believe the sight before them as the heavenly host fills the starry sky above.
“Hurry!” we cry to the wise men as they make their preparations to follow the star and begin their journey to meet the new King.
Oh it’s easy to believe the impossible when it’s someone else’s story, isn’t it. But what about when it’s ours?
As I sit at the dining room table coloring with my daughter, doing (another) load of laundry, or attending a work meeting, these wondrous events of so long ago seem a million miles away from my everyday, ordinary reality. There is no impossible here.
Or is there?
I’m pretty sure Mary was having a rather uneventful day when the angel appeared; Joseph too. The shepherds had turned up for just another day at work; the wise men had no travel plans on the agenda that morning.
And yet, God did the impossible anyway.
This advent season, I urge you put your faith in the God who breaks through the walls of our unbelief, our ordinariness, our unimportance, even our lack of faith; and makes miracles happen—perhaps when we least expect it…
“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.” Corrie ten Boom
