Luke 1:46b-55

“Mary said, ‘With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.”

Mary has just been invited to be the carrier of something really big. And after only a little hesitation and a question, she jumped on it. She took that responsibility. You know why? Because she absolutely trusted that God had asked this of her and God would see it through.

Jonah had a quite different response to God’s request to go to the city of Nineveh. He did just about everything a person could to avoid that trip. It didn’t end well for him. He wound up having to go anyway.

Most of us would fall somewhere in between this wide spectrum of response to God’s requests. Sometimes we’re gleefully willing. Sometimes we drag our feet till they get hot on the bottoms. What request has God made of you lately? How did you respond? How were you blessed by it?

The good news is God loves us all and never, ever, ever, ever gives up on us.

God of Seemingly Impossible Requests, thank you the challenges. Provide for us what we need to meet those challenges every day. And thanks a lot for not giving up on us! Amen.

– Pastor Fay Ann Blaylock, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Falls City, and Zion United Church of Christ, Rulo