The God of Impossibilities...


I'm amazed that Mary said yes.  I found myself sitting in church this morning wondering if I would have done the same.  Would I have said yes?  If the angel would have appeared in my bedroom at the age of 14 or 15, would I have had the courage to say yes?  I want to say I would, but the reality is, even at 37 years of age, "saying yes" to God is sometimes like taking this blind leap of faith in hopes that in the end a parachute will appear (as our Pastor described it to us this morning).  I guess that's what really strikes me most about Mary.  She didn't just say yes.  She said it with a confidence.  She said it as though she knew a little about this God who could do the impossible.

Sometimes I wish that the things that God asked us to do felt a little more like jumping off the first step and a little less like jumping out of an airplane...wondering if the parachute really works.

Last Thursday, Nate and I found ourselves on a conference call with our social worker in which the only thing I think I really heard was, "You could be matched with a child any day."  Several moments later Nate and I began to talk about the financial reality that came with that.  We would also need to come up with a lot of money in a short amount of time.

I am not sure why, but I find myself feeling a bit like I'm jumping out of an airplane wondering if the parachute will appear in this adoption.  When we began praying about adopting again, we really felt like God was moving us in the direction of special needs.  We found out that the India program was looking for families who were willing to adopt special needs, began to pray about it, and eventually started the process.  We aren't sure what needs our child will have, but we know that she will most likely have needs that can be corrected and managed in the states.  That thought can be overwhelming.

Sometimes God asks us to take a blind leap of faith.  I think he does it because he actually loves showing up and doing what we couldn't do on our own or what we deem as "impossible."  I think it's why he chose a no-name teenage virgin to carry the Savior of the World.  It's was unexpected.  Unpredictable.  Unlikely.  But in the end, it was what God was dreaming up and was exactly what the world needed.

I don't want to be a person who spends my days wondering if I should have jumped and I don't want to settle to jump from that first step.  God is dreaming up impossibilities that will leave us breathless if we are just willing to take a blind leap of faith.  May our response be like that of Mary:

"I'm Yours Lord...do with me what you wish."


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