Several years ago driving out of the grocery parking lot, I pulled behind a few cars waiting to turn left. After a minute or so without moving, I could see the car at the front of the line with the engine lid raised, so I swerved to the right and maneuvered through an adjacent lot to get on my way.
In my haste, I spotted the driver of the stalled car and tapped on brakes. I couldn’t tell from the distance if it was a man or woman, but I was pretty sure they were elderly. And just like me, driver after driver pulled past without stopping to help. I glanced over as I passed by, then caught the wheel to make a U-turn. I was in my usual hurry to get home, but it could wait.
I parked and jumped out of my car, jogging into the frigid morning. I could now see a woman leaned over the steering wheel, looking more than a little desperate. She stood as I ran up, and I was taken back by her beauty. Less “elderly” than I initially thought. Likely in her 70s, tall and trim, elegant hair and polished makeup, and outfitted in a bright yellow sweater ~ the shade of yellow most women can’t pull off. But on her it was stunning.
“Do you know why my car would have stalled?” she asked. “I was just pulling out, and the car completely died. I have Triple-A on the phone, but I don’t know what happened.”
I flipped through my mental catalog of knowledge on cars and engines, which took about four seconds, and came up with nothing. This was a luxury sedan and everything appeared normal. By this time she had gotten it running again but was afraid to drive it home. I tinkered for a moment and asked if I could pull it around to a safer spot and get her out of traffic. She nodded. I felt a little intrusive noticing her open purse and phone in the passenger seat, but mere seconds passed before I moved her car from the busy exit and into a parking space.
“How close are you to home? Can you drive straight there since it’s running?”
“Yes, I live in a retirement home not far from here, and the agent said he’ll stay on the phone with me.”
We exchanged first names, and she looked at me deep and clear and said, “You’re so able.”
I’m not sure what I was expecting her to say, but she surprised me. “Kind to stop,” or “Helpful,” something like that, but not “able.”
While I offered a few moments of my time to this sweet woman, I wasn’t really all that able. I knew nothing about her car, didn’t even actually follow her home to safety. But she was measuring my ability against her own. And in a situation when she needed help, she didn’t need nice, didn’t need encouraging, she needed able.
Early in the Bible, when the Lord told Abram that his wife Sarah would conceive and give birth to a child in her old age, she laughed in disbelief.
The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I’m too old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Gen 18:13-14
Pause ~ for you and for me, in 2025, is anything too hard for the Lord?
Throughout Scripture God is described as ABLE – all caps!
God is not like anyone we have or will know. His message was straightforward to Abraham and Sarah, that in their old age he would bless them with a child, and Sarah laughed. And this was after years of walking in obedience and following the Lord. Yet when told – by the Lord himself – she would bear a child, she laughed in disbelief. She weighed God’s ability on what she had experienced, what she could see.
I don’t blame Sarah.
But – she was wrong.
Let us be encouraged as we venture into this new year that God has no limitations. He is a mystery, on purpose. And when circumstances tempt us towards disappointment and despair, we are reminded in Scripture that God is perfectly loving, steady, and unchanging.
Heavenly Father, You are so ABLE.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Eph 3:20-21