A Prayer About Seeming Impossibilities
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:34-38
Heavenly Father, I certainly don’t see Mary as a mere model. You gave her a calling no one else will ever share-to be the mother of God the Son, Jesus. And yet, I find I do have a lot in common with her. When I consider the outlandish and outrageous proportion of the promises you’ve made accompanying the birth and life of Jesus, I too say and pray with incredulity, “How will this be?” And I hear you answer back in the gospel, “Nothing is impossible with God.”
There’s nothing you’ve promised concerning the person and work of your Son, Jesus, that will not happen. This means a lot of incredibly wonderful things-cosmically and corporately, but also very personally. As farfetched and out of reach as it seems on some days, it means that you will complete the good work of salvation you’ve begun in me. One Day I will fully love with the kindness and compassion of Jesus; I will only think and see with the wisdom and eyes of heaven; I will completely embrace the will of God as my favorite bread and utter delight.
I will never be selfish, petty, or defensive again. I will never get my feelings hurt, insist on being right, or demand more. I will think of others more highly and more often than myself. I won’t keep a record of anybody’s wrongs. I will never remember and rehearse the ways others have failed me, and the ways I’ve failed them. I will be free, so very free and whole.
To all of these are promises I find myself saying, “How will this be, since I’m still so very much not like Jesus?” And you answer back, you answer back so mercifully and grace-fully, “Things impossible with man are possible with God.” And I say and pray… “May it be as you have promised in the gospel, holy and faithful Father. I am yours and your servant.”
So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ name.