A scientist had studied bees for years. He’d weighed and measured and analysed.
Finally, he decided that with the bee’s shape and weight, and the form of its wings, it was impossible for it to fly. It broke all the rules.
Fortunately, no one told the bees, they do the impossible every day.
Doing the impossible is a Christian commitment. Loving your neighbour is possible, depending on your neighbour, but loving your enemy? Not retaliating to insult is just possible, but turning the other cheek? Can you really give your coat to the man who’s already taken your shirt? It’s just too much to ask. Yet Jesus asks it as everyday life for his followers.
Just as we quietly decide it’s impossible, and we give room to voices that tell us that the Christian life doesn’t work, we notice individuals whose lives prove it does work.
Paul concluded, from personal experience, “I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength”. (Phil.4:13)
To be fair to the scientist, there was some humour in his report. He knew bees could fly – he’d watched them for years. His point was that it went against the rules, which goes to show we don’t know everything.
Jesus wants us to leave room in our life for the impossible, for mystery, for faith.