Hope for the hopeless days

It was a story of the impossible.

A story of second chances and redemptive love.

A story that most of us probably need to hear.

This one’s for everyone that thinks they’ve probably messed it up, left it too late, not had the faith or the courage to believe it really might be possible to achieve their dream.

For all of us that have a seed of an idea tucked deep in their soul. A little tiny voice that we’re almost too frightened to give voice to and admit is there.

The story of Sarah.

She was old. Too old to keep hoping and dreaming and praying that her dream would come to pass. Too old to even allow a tiny bit of hope to remain. And when God showed up and told her to keep on hoping? That not only should she keep on hoping but that it would actually come to pass? She laughed. Just like you and I might laugh when we consider our hopes and dreams and all the dead and dying things that are in buried deep inside us that have not yet been given life. And what did God say?

“Why did Sarah laugh….Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” Genesis 18:14

“Ummmmm….. no? I wasn’t laughing…..” Sarah stuttered, as if God couldn’t see the thoughts of her heart. As if he can’t see our thoughts, our doubts, our unbelief.

And so it came to pass. As God said it would. And many years later the story was recounted, as it had been throughout generations and would be for generations to come. Only this time it was different.

“By faith Sarah, even though she was old and barren, received the strength to conceive, because she was convinced that the one who had made the promise was faithful.” Hebrews 11:11

And so, with one fell swoop, it was gone. The doubts, the denial, the unbelief. Gone. Replaced by faith and hope and confidence.

And so she was redeemed. Her story made right by a righteous God that makes all our stories come right in the end.

That stoops down and sweeps over our imperfections and our introspection and chooses only to see the good, the right, the beautiful.

That chooses to bring to life the dead things and hope to the hopeless.

You are made right. You are redeemed. It is not too late. It is never too late for God, for whom nothing is too difficult.