Week 2: Day 3

Scripture: Luke 1:5-25

A reasonable human question receives an answer that exceeds all human reason. It exceeds, too, the natural law. But the angel turns from rules to the Ruler. He grounds the truth of his answer not in creation but in the Creator, whose word shall never be impossible.

-Walter Wangerin Jr.

Elizabeth and Zechariah never saw it coming.

Luke describes them as righteous followers.

And then, he calls her barren. The word has a tendency to define those it claims.

And the word, it doesn't come alone. It lives in the shadows of words like "empty" and "impossible."

But the angel turns from the rules to the Ruler...

The unbelievable became true and the impossible started growing in an old woman's belly. Suddenly what was empty had been filled with the miracle of a God who had chosen the Way. And what had been silent inside of her was filled with laughter and joy and a thankfulness that had been hidden, waiting in her bones.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

-Luke 1:36-37

The God who filled her womb removed the word that defined her. In defiance of nature and the laws of medicine, the Ruler blew life into the empty places. For him, nothing is impossible. No place is too dark, too broken, too empty. The truth of this season is that in all of our pain and our doubt, our fear and anger, and our broken and empty places.

The king is coming.

Prayer:

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine; Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death, thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty, thy glory in my valley.

Amen. -Valley of Vision