This week while I was reading Genesis, I couldn’t get past this question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14).
The question was asserted when three angels came to visit Abraham and Sarah and revealed that Sarah was going to have a baby the following year. Hearing this, Sarah couldn’t help but laugh. At this point, Sarah was 90 years old and already way past menopause. After all those decades of not being able to conceive, God was giving them a child? Just the thought of all those decades of emptiness and pain, of a dream deferred and a longing never fulfilled, makes me want to laugh (and cry) with Sarah too.
But God insists, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
This is a rhetorical question that we aren’t meant to move right past too quickly. It seems to reverberate off the walls and continues to echo in the chambers of our hearts. There is only one clear answer to this question—a resounding “no!” And it resounds. Nothing is too hard for God.
And yet the question is so needed because it speaks directly into our doubts and fears. There are things on earth that seem far too hard and far too impossible. We believe that they’re impossible because we’ve considered our options, our resources, and our efforts thus far. We’ve written out pro and con lists. In the final analysis, we’ve assessed that it’s not humanly possible. By our estimates, it’s never gonna happen. For God, however, what’s impossible is possible. Nothing is too hard for God. At age 90, Sarah will get pregnant. It took decades, but the child that was promised will arrive.
These reflections beg the question: What’s the promise, hope, or dream that feels impossible to you? I want to invite you to take some time right now to name it, place it into God’s hands, and then see what God says and does.
