October 2021

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With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26


 Impossible

We were standing outside looking up at the house, talking about some changes we'd like to make when the first one fluttered past, a monarch, brilliant orange against the clear blue September sky. Soon another, then another butterfly emerged from our woods and flew past us, south and west. They flew singularly, in pairs, or in small groups of three or four like bright orange chips of paint on the breeze. It didn't take long for us to realize that we were witnessing the monarch migration we'd only read about until then. My husband and sons had mowed carefully around our stands of milkweed all summer because I'd asked them to for the sake of the monarchs that feed on the leaves, lay eggs there, and go through all the stages of their development on a plant that's toxic to most other insects. Here was our reward!

 Monarchs fly hundreds of miles during migration to a place they've never seen before. These delicate butterflies fluttering past us so beautifully were on their way to Mexico to over-winter. I marveled, again, that a creature so small and delicate in comparison to the vastness of sky and miles and weather with which it must contend, even undertakes such a journey, "going home to a place [its] never been before," as one folk song says.

 It made me wonder why the word "impossible" is even in my vocabulary.

 This reminds me of a passage in Acts about another seemingly impossible thing that, through the forethought and design of a loving God, took place anyway: the conversion of Saul.

 Now Saul was about the most unlikely convert to the Way there was on the face of the earth at that time. He was not only an outspoken critic of Christianity but also a zealous persecutor of Christians, and "breathed murderous threats" against the disciples of Christ. Of his own initiative, Saul went to the high priest to obtain letters to the synagogues in Damascus that would allow him to bring Christ followers, "men or women", back with him as prisoners to Jerusalem.

 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9: 1- 4)

 Picture it. Here's this important, powerful, most likely well-dressed man, letters in hand giving him even more authority than he'd previously had, striding along, confident he was doing the right thing, the righteous thing even, as he was on his way to Damascus to destroy the lives of more men and women of the Way, when BAM! . . ."a light from heaven flashed around him" and "he fell to ground".

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9: 5 -6)

Do you see Saul arguing? Do you see him shaking those letters in the face of the Lord? Do you see him imperiously asking for an explanation or trying to reason with anyone? Nope! What did Saul do? The Lord said, "Get up and go" and Saul got up and went to a home he'd never been before.

If Saul (Saul!) can be changed in an instant, who then is beyond redemption?

It makes me wonder why the word "impossible" is even in my vocabulary.

 Look closely at this month's photo. Very closely. Just left of the center of that gloriously backlit cloud, you'll see a monarch doing what it was made to do.

What seemingly impossible journey to a home you've never been to before is the Lord asking you to make and trust that, through his grace and for his glory, you can make? Goodbye impossible, hello possible!

 

Daye Phillippo

October 2021