Believe in the Impossible!

By Jessica S. Hosman

It was three days before my son’s fourth birthday and he was convinced he’d be able to play outside in the snow when the day arrived. While this may have been characteristic in year’s past, this year was different. Instead, an unseasonably warm day of sunshine and near 60-degree temps were forecasted. While the majority of Kansans were happy about this, Zechariah was depressed. His heart was set on snow… and specifically a pile of snow that he could play in. I apologized to my son that this wouldn’t occur and told him it would be a miracle if he had snow on his special day. Without hesitation, he responded confidently, “Then I will ask Jesus for a miracle and He will give me snow.” And that’s exactly what my son did. For three days straight, he prayed and didn’t just ask, but thanked Jesus in advance for giving him a miracle.
As the day before his birthday approached, Zechariah continued to speak with eager anticipation of the miracle Jesus was going to give him. I looked at the forecast and my heart felt heavy. I knew it would be impossible for it to snow and I wasn’t quite sure how I would explain it to my son without crushing his faith. I smiled at the thought of the Lord coming through and shifting the weather patterns, but my intellect quickly dismissed the possibility.
The big day came. Zechariah awoke with expectancy. He looked outside and saw the sunshine but wasn’t swayed. “Jesus is going to give me my miracle!” he said. I tried to gently dissuade him but his mind was fixed. As we drove to a nearby town to celebrate, he surveyed the passing fields from his window and confidently commented from the backseat, “Well, it hasn’t snowed yet… but Jesus is still going to give me my miracle.” There was no talking him out of it.
We arrived at our destination and, since it was so warm outside, decided to park a couple of blocks away so we could enjoy a short walk. As we rounded a bend, I froze in shock. There in front of us stood not one, but two piles of snow. With eyes wide and a smile even wider, Zechariah began jumping up and down exclaiming, “My miracle! Jesus gave me my miracle!” He climbed, marched around, and gleefully slid down the snow piles relishing every bit of his gift from the Lord.
I watched in awe and pondered how my grown-up intellect had so effortlessly discounted the possibility that my son would receive his heart’s desire that day. Yet, my son’s deeper intellect revealed the simplicity of the Gospel once more. “If you believe, you will receive anything you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:22) There was no shadow of doubt in my son’s mind. To him, it was a no-brainer: he desired snow, he asked Jesus for snow, so of course he would receive snow… even if Mommy tried to tell him otherwise.
We are all God’s children. He doesn’t love my Zechariah any more than the rest of us. But I do believe He is pleased with his faith and desirous that we would mirror the same. God didn’t tell us to believe only if it makes rational sense. He told us to believe… even in the realm of impossibility… maybe even especially in the realm of impossibility. For its then that the true miracles in life really can take place.