Impossible Possibilities

Few things are impossible any more. Scientists have us believing that if we can dream, we can accomplish things in our lifetimes never thought of before. Advent dares to talk about things so unusual, they have not even been imagined. For example, take another look at the virgin birth. God had intervened many times in the lives of infertile couples. Just ask Sarai and Hannah; they have plenty of stories that will make you chuckle. What about a couple that does not want to have a baby? Who would have considered that a righteous man and woman just barely getting to know one another and not even talking about "starting a family" could become the agents of the miraculous? The virgin birth dares to dream that kind of impossibility. As Eugene Peterson notes in his recent book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, the virgin birth trumps all other conceptions because this kind of thing had never been done before. The birth of Christ creates possibilities that make the dreams of scientists seem so shortsighted.