Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Romans 4:16-25

Ours is a God of miracles. Paul continues to offer insight into the faith of Abraham. He describes God as the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” and then goes onto describe Abraham as having a body that was “as good as dead, (for he was about a hundred years old),” which sounds like one of my grandchildren describing me.

What was the promise here? It was that Abraham and Sarah, who were both childless and beyond the age of having children, were told that a great nation would be created from their descendants. Paul reminds us that ours is a God of impossibilities.

What are impossibilities that we face today? Do we think it impossible to mend fences with people who have different cultural or political perspectives? Do we think things like global peace … global hunger … environmental disaster … are simply too overwhelming or too complicated? It boggles the mind to think of things like this. Yet our God is greater than our greatest fear or our greatest woe.

Where to start? Abraham and Sarah didn’t have millions of children. Together they had one child. If we want to make a difference in race relations or connecting with people who are culturally different from us, perhaps we could start in our neighborhood or our city. If we want to care for the poorest in our world, we can start with those right across town and in our state. The care of our planet starts with our own decision about whether to use disposable or reusable plates … cups … bottles.

In my journey through Lent, I am making a serious effort to do one small thing each day in hopes that God will magnify that one small thing millions of times. How about you?

You call us to do the impossible, O God, and as we journey with you, may we see that, for you, nothing is impossible. Amen.