Trusting in the Impossible

"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." Genesis 15:1b

Trusting in the Impossible
By Rev. William Dohle

The other day my family and I were sitting around the house when the topic of Jesus came up.

Matthew, my middle son, turned to me and said:

"You know, daddy. Jesus didn't really rise from the dead. That was just his spirit."

"No, Matthew," I said. "Jesus did rise from the dead."
"He did?"

"There was no body in the tomb. Just some grave clothes folded up. And a couple angels announcing he had risen."

"So...Jesus is... alive?"

"Yes, Matthew," I said.

After a moment, he got this strange look on his face and then gave me a hug, "I love you."

"I love you too, Matthew."


The problem Matthew(even at his young age)had with Jesus physically rising from the dead is that it is, technically, impossible. There is no way a body could rise from the dead... could it? With everything we know we can't possibly imagine this happening! Could it?

Abram too faced the same situation. God had just told him, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your great reward." Looking up to the heavens, Abram is told. "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be."

Of course Abram knew that this was impossible. His wife and he had long aged past childbearing years. Imagine a typical eighty year old man and woman expecting children. Absurd! It's just not possible!

Only with God it is! With God all things are possible. Childless men and women can bear children. Whole nations can come from two infertile people. Why...with God...even the dead can come physically back to life in a new and perfect way!

Trusting in such things requires faith. "Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness." Abram believed the impossible...and God called him righteous! That's faith! That's trust! Abram said "Yes" to the promises of God, even when those promises were not his to grasp. Abram trusted that God would give him children(somehow). Abram trusted that those children would go on to do great things. That they would inherit the land he was now in. Abram trusted God...and God called him righteous.

Where is trust needed in your life? What promises do you have a hard time hearing? Do you have trouble believing that God is present with you, through good times and bad? Do you have hard time with forgiveness, with seeing that God can and has let go of your past mis-deeds? What "impossible" prayers have you prayed today? What have you declared "impossible" for human reasons?

God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth. Impossible? Maybe for us. But not for God. With God all things are possible. As we wait for that day, we live in the hope of that promise, trusting in the Lord who has declared us righteous because of the faith he has planted in our hearts.

God of Abram, we too have trouble believing in the impossible. Give us faith by your Holy Spirit. Help us see the impossible through the possible here that we might, along with Abram, be declared righteous, in Christ name. Amen.