“Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” ~ Jeremiah 32:17

Luke 1 reveals two impossible scenarios (as if one isn’t enough!):

A elderly couple, too old to reasonably think about child-rearing, but praying for it with hoarse voices just the same. And a teenage virgin, with dreams of a one-day family but no clue that the dream was about to be a reality, without the help of a husband.

When the angel appeared to Zechariah, bursting the good news that he and Elizabeth would finally receive the child they’d been praying for, Zechariah could hardly believe it. In fact, he DIDN’T. “How can I be sure of this?” he asked, wanting definitive proof that what the angel said would actually come to be (Luke 1:18).

Mary was equally as surprised by an angelic visit, overwhelmed by the favorable greeting and no doubt terrified of this glimpse of the divine right in front of her. And when he told this mere child that her virgin womb would be with child, she replied, “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34)

Do you see the difference? Both asked a question, but one did so with a thread of doubt, while the other with an unmistakable assurance of belief.

CAN? Or WILL? The first makes the impossibility the center of attention. The second declares a sovereign God to be precisely what He is: ABLE.

How will you respond to the impossible scenarios in your life? It’s the four-letter word that makes all the difference.