Genesis 17:15-21: a reflection

15God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. 16I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.” 17Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?” 18Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”

When God tells the aged Abraham that his wife Sarah, ninety years old, will bear a son, Abraham falls on his face and laughs, thinking it impossible: Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety, bear a child? It seemed laughably beyond possibility. But God is undeterred: No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And at the appointed time, against all natural possibility, God kept his word, and Isaac was born.

Notice the collision between human impossibility and God's promise. By every natural reckoning, a child born to a hundred-year-old man and a ninety-year-old woman was impossible; Abraham laughed at the very idea. But what is impossible for us is not impossible for God. God made the promise knowing it was beyond natural possibility, and he kept it, doing what could not be done, at the time he had set. Nothing, the story teaches, is too hard for the LORD.

That truth speaks to our own moments of facing the impossible. There are things in our lives that seem, by every natural reckoning, beyond possibility, situations we, like Abraham, might laugh at the thought of God changing. But what is impossible for us is not impossible for God. He is able to do what cannot be done, to keep promises that seem beyond all possibility, in his time. When you face something that seems impossible, do not limit God to what seems possible to you. Nothing is too hard for the LORD. Trust the God who gave Abraham and Sarah a son against all possibility to do, in your life, what you cannot see how he could do. With God, the impossible is possible.

Lord, when you promised the aged Abraham and Sarah a son, it seemed laughably impossible, and Abraham laughed; but you kept your word, doing what could not be done, at the time you had set. Nothing is too hard for you. When I face things that seem, by every natural reckoning, beyond possibility, keep me from limiting you to what seems possible to me. What is impossible for me is not impossible for you; you are able to do what cannot be done, to keep promises beyond all possibility, in your time. Help me trust the God who gave Abraham and Sarah a son against all possibility to do, in my life, what I cannot see how you could do. With you, the impossible is possible; help me trust you even for what seems impossible.