Today’s Bible reading reminded me to say “It’s not too late” when I am tempted to be cynical or give up amid delays and disappointments.
With my dreams seemingly impossible in human terms—or my mind can’t simply grasp an idea beyond the now—I would have laughed at that too when I was told that it would happen in my lifetime, like when Sarah laughed at the idea of bearing a child and giving birth in old age:
12 Therefore Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have become aged shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord (husband), being old also
Genesis 18:12-15 AMPC
13 And the Lord asked Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I really bear a child when I am so old?
14 Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes around, I will return to you and Sarah shall have borne a son.
15 Then Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh; for she was afraid. And He said, No, but you did laugh.
When we zoom in on the details of our lives, I’d like to think about how it would be impossible to see the greater story at work, unfolding beyond what our minds can imagine. We would be like a cat looking at a treat right in front of our nose, and all we could see is a blur. Seeing things from the wrong perspective breeds disappointment, and oh, how many have I been through in my life just because I was too naive to see things only one way—and often my way.
Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord?
Sometimes, it’s just so hard to think outside the box when the box is the only reality we can imagine. And probably, these are the moments we really need to hear from God, to help us open our eyes and see what’s possible because of who God is—not bound by the space-time continuum like we are.
Zooming out, as money traders see trends, we can begin to see how delays are actually opportunities for things to sort themselves out and open doors for us in the future.
The hard part for me, while waiting for things to sort themselves out, is to endure the waiting of not knowing what’s going on. The part of me, the one that wants to be in control, gets the best of me, often short-circuiting my brain, so that I find myself malfunctioning and caving in through the pain of silence.
The other night, I found myself doing something I hadn’t done before: I laid out, date by date, everything that had happened over the last year of chasing a PhD.
2025 became a year of preparation. Road shows. Applications. A spark of hope that turned into rejection. And then, in the span of a few weeks in December, a door I wouldn’t have knocked on if not for my husband’s encouragement, opened—not because I had it all figured out, but because something had been sorting itself out behind the scenes, beyond what I could see.
That same week, I thought back to a conversation I had with a Pastor from Australia in December last year about how he experienced God’s hand at work in the last minute, where the only thing left for us to do is trust in Him, because if we are to rely on our imagination, things appear to be bleak.
Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord?
And yet.
Here I am, experiencing God’s hand breaking through things I never thought possible, at the last minute.
Sarah was 90 years old, beyond the childbearing age, and yet… she bore a son. It must have felt last-minute. But it got answered nonetheless. God made possible what was impossible.
My story isn’t over. The results that my husband and I have been waiting for aren’t in yet. But I’m learning that not knowing what comes next and trusting that something is at work are not mutually exclusive—even if my brain keeps insisting otherwise.
jessa 