Approaching Impossibility - Advent Devotional Day 21

Scripture
“Nothing is impossible for God.” - Luke 1:37

Reflection
This statement, “Nothing is impossible for God”, comes directly after two families being told by an angel that they were going to have a baby.  Both families had strong cases for why this should be impossible.  

Zechariah and Elizabeth were seemingly too old.  

Mary and Joseph had not had sexual relations.

Those seem like fairly solid reasons to embrace the impossibility of conception.  Yet upon comparing the responses of Zechariah and Mary (who were the recipients of the news), we can learn a remarkable truth about approaching impossibility.

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Let’s start with Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah.  He was a priest who held a responsibility of entering into the holy of holies (the place where God was known to live in that time) and burning incense.  Upon entering God’s dwelling, an angel says your wife is going to have a child, and your child is going to be darn near perfect.  God loves him.  He won’t drink.  He’ll be filled with the Spirit, and he’ll turn people toward God.  Upon hearing this, Zechariah responds with

“How will I know this for certain?”

Zechariah wanted certainty, and because he did the angel says, “And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

He didn’t believe and therefore he was left unable to share the good news of new life to come with others.

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Now let’s look at Mary.  She has an eerily similar story.  It’s the story of a woman who can’t have a child because she is a virgin. She is visited by the angel Gabriel in her own home, and she’s told to not be afraid because she’s found favor in God’s eyes. She is going to have a son and she has to give him a name...the name of Jesus…..and her son will be the Lord and his kingdom will have no end.

Mary’s response?

“How can this be, since I’m a virgin?”  

In place of asking “How can I be certain?”  we find a woman who says “How can I help?” She basically says, “Lord have your way in me (literally). I don’t need to know exactly how this will play out because I remember who is asking me.”  She then breaks into song of all the ways God has been faithful in the past.  (See verses 50-55)

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My favorite thing about these stories is that both John and Jesus are born regardless of their parents' responses to a seemingly impossible situation.  And I love this part because it shows us that regardless of how we respond to God’s good news for our lives, God still does all that he says He’ll do.  

The difference is what your season of waiting for the impossible looks like.

In Mary’s season of waiting, the Good News gains its power immediately.
In Zechariah’s season of waiting, the Good News has yet to come.

Mary’s season of waiting offers hope to the hopeless
Zechariah’s season of waiting leaves people in the dark.

Mary’s season of waiting shows the world that GOD IS WITH US NOW!!
Zechariah’s season of waiting leaves us wanting.

My question for you is this:  What does Advent look like for you?

Will you be a Zechariah?  Will you forget what God has done for His people, and demand proof of Him just one more time….leaving you speechless to those who cry out for a new day?

or

Will you be a Mary?  Will you remember all that God has done for us already, and by faith share and live out God with us Here and Now to all who cry out for a new day?

Prayer
God,
Our inability to remember you for us paralyzes our ability to declare you with us.  Help me to remember your past faithfulness during seasons of impossibility, so that I might declare your good news to the world in my seasons of waiting. Amen.