IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR GOD?

                                                                                   by Mariane Holbrook

My father had that mischievous look in his eyes.  Even as a ten-year-old, I recognized it and should have been prepared.

But I wasn’t.

He often teased me with such riddles as “What is the first telephone number in the Bible?”

After I pretended I knew but wouldn’t divulge the answer, he gave me the answer.  “It’s Adam 8-1-2.”

Then as if that wasn’t enough to worry me to death, he’d ask, “What’s the only word in the English language

containing three consecutive sets of double letters?” 

I surrendered immediately which wasn’t a smart move because he made me wait until after dinner to tell me.

The answer was “bookkeeper” (or its derivative, “bookkeeping”).

But on this Saturday, he asked me a question that’s still knocking around in my brain after all these years.

“Do you believe,” he asked with mock sincerity, “that God can do anything?”

“Sure, daddy,” I replied with enthusiasm.  “I believe God can do anything He wants to.”

Then came the zinger.

“Well, “ Daddy said slowly, making sure I had time to assimilate his words, “Do you believe God can make a rock so big He can’t lift it?”

I squeezed my eyes shut, pursed my lips, felt my face contorting while I shifted from one foot to the other. 

He patiently waited for my answer, obviously enjoying my mental torment.

After several minutes, I answered, “OK, I give up.  What’s the answer, Daddy?”  The question was too hard, too all-encompassing, too mind-numbing for me to consider any longer.

Of course, there was no good answer but it set in motion a life-long question which I’ve asked myself hundreds and hundreds of times: “Is anything too hard for God?”

If not, why wasn’t my life-long friend healed of the Polio she contracted when in her early 20s and which left her paralyzed for over 30 years until her death?  Was it too hard for God to heal my dad of that dreadful form of cancer that finally took his life and left me desolate?  Why isn’t my diabetic friend healed of the blindness he’s endured for over 40 years when he has faithfully and with frequency followed the Scriptural command to be anointed with oil for “the prayer of faith shall heal the sick?”

I don’t have even a hint of an answer for the above. Therefore, I have put these concerns and many others on a shelf in my mind, sure that someday my patient and loving Lord will explain them to my full and complete satisfaction.

For me, the greatest question of all time is “What did God ever see in me that He would send His beloved Son to face a cruel death of unimaginable proportions so that I could escape eternal damnation?”

When I am finally able to comprehend that kind of love, then I will know that there is indeed nothing too hard for God.