How Shall This Be?
The room is quiet. The diagnosis has been given. The lawyer has explained the finality of the situation. The bank has sent its last notice. And in the silence that follows the verdict, a single, desperate question hangs in the air: *How?* How can this be happening? How can I possibly get through this? How can this ever be made right? It is the most human question of all, a cry from a heart that sees a mountain of impossibility and has no climbing gear, no map, no hope of a path forward.
This is the very question a young girl in Nazareth asked an angel. Mary, confronted with a promise that defied biology, logic, and culture, didn't respond with outright disbelief. She responded with a question of process. She essentially said, 'I hear the what, but I don't understand the how.' It's a question you've likely asked a thousand times in your own dark nights. 'God, I hear your promise of peace, but how, when my anxiety is crippling? God, I hear your promise of provision, but how, when my account is empty? God, I hear you, but my reality is screaming a different story.'
Notice the angel's response. He doesn't give Mary a five-step plan. He doesn't offer a logical proof or a scientific explanation. He answers the question of 'how' with a Person: 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.' The answer to the mechanics of your miracle is the presence of your Maker. We are so often obsessed with the 'how,' trying to reverse-engineer God's plan, looking for a formula we can follow. But God is not a formula; He is a Father. He is not a process; He is a Person. The power that creates worlds from nothing is the same power that steps into the barrenness of your life to bring forth a miracle. Your job is not to figure out the 'how.' Your job is to make room for the 'Who.'
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.— Luke 1:34-35, KJV
The Evidence of Elsewhere
When our own faith is wavering, when the impossibility in front of us feels all-consuming, God often provides a lifeline. He points us to the evidence of His work elsewhere. The angel, after delivering the world-altering news to Mary, immediately pivots. He doesn't just leave her with a promise for her own life; he gives her proof of a promise fulfilled in another's. He directs her gaze to her cousin, Elisabeth.
‘And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.’ This wasn't just a piece of family gossip. This was a strategic move by the God of the universe. It was a living, breathing testament to His power over the impossible. He was saying, 'Mary, while you've been living your life in Nazareth, I've been working in the hill country of Judea. While you've been wondering about your future, I've been rewriting Elisabeth's present. The very thing everyone said could never happen for her… is happening.'
Sometimes, the miracle you need to see to believe for your own breakthrough is the one God is performing in your friend's life, in your small group, or in the testimony you just heard. We are not islands of faith. We are an ecosystem of grace. Another's victory is not a reason for jealousy; it is confirmation that you serve a God who is still in the miracle-working business. It is tangible proof that what seems **impossible with God** is, in fact, His specialty. He shows you His work in someone else's barrenness so you can find hope for your own. He lets you see the mountain He moved for them, so you can trust that **God moves mountains** for you, too.
And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.— Luke 1:36-37, KJV
The Posture of Possibility
After the question of 'how' and the evidence from 'elsewhere' comes the moment of decision. It is the pivot point where a promise from heaven becomes a reality on earth. It all comes down to our response. We can analyze it, debate it, doubt it, or we can do what Mary did. We can adopt the posture of possibility.
Her response is one of the most powerful and faith-filled statements in all of Scripture: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.' This is not the sigh of passive resignation. It is the declaration of active surrender. It is a conscious choice to align her life with God's Word, even when it made no human sense. She was saying, 'I don't understand how, but I trust Who. My life is yours. My body is yours. My future is yours. Let your word become my reality.'
This is the posture that invites the impossible. It's an open-handed receiving of what God wants to do, rather than a tight-fisted clinging to what we can control. How often do we pray for a miracle but then hand God a list of instructions on how He should perform it? We want the mountain moved, but only if He moves it to a location of our choosing, using methods we approve of. Mary's surrender bypasses all of that. She simply makes herself available for God's glory. This is the heart of what it means to trust God. It is to look at the undeniable truth of **Luke 1:37**, 'For with God nothing shall be impossible,' and to respond not with a question, but with an invitation: 'Lord, prove it in me. Be it unto me.'
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.— Luke 1:38, KJV
Your situation may look just as impossible as Mary's. The facts, the figures, the feelings—they may all be shouting that it's over, that there's no way through. But the angel's message was not just for a teenager in Nazareth two thousand years ago. It is for you, right now, in the middle of your pain. 'For with God nothing shall be impossible.' This is not a platitude; it is a promise sealed by the blood of the Son that Mary would bear. Stop staring at the size of your mountain and fix your eyes on the Maker of mountains. Let your heart trade its desperate 'how?' for Mary's surrendered 'yes.' And then, with the posture of possibility, watch as the power of the Highest overshadows your impossible situation and does what only He can do.