DailySusan Humor Blog

SETH THE IMPOSSIBLE, PART II

Your Sunday story is coming to you a little early this week!
Wishing you a joyous Easter!
DailySusan will return on Monday, April 17.

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For this is the word of promise,
at the appointed time will I come,
and Sarah shall have a son.
-- Romans 9:9

(Continued from “Seth the Impossible, Part I,” 4/9/06, archived on www.DailySusan.com; click on the “Radiant Beams” logo in the upper left-hand corner, and scroll down to “Holidays and Special Occasions” for the first half of this special Easter story about God following through on what seemed like an impossible promise.)

One day, she read Romans 9:9 and Genesis 18:10. In both, the Lord promised a son.
Written centuries apart! On opposite ends of the Bible!
He spoke to her again: “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and you will have a son.”
She circled the date, Nov. 29. God better get moving!
The next summer, she kept seeing a TV ad for the Open Door Mission. A fellow at her church volunteered there. She went with him a few times.
Christmastime rolled around. A group from her church, including him, put up her Christmas lights. She took pictures, and wrote the date on the back: Nov. 29.
Hmmm.
The first Sunday in January, she skipped church. Her Bible journal’s verse that day was Hebrews 6:13 – God keeps His promises.
Brrrrring! The phone rang. It was the fellow. “I was concerned because you missed church today.” They talked.
HMMMM!
A friend dreamed that a man was looking at her, saying, “I think she’ll be cute even when she’s old.” That day’s verse was Isaiah 46:9-11: God was summoning a man to execute His counsel.
They fell madly in love, and married within two months. Woo hoo!
But there was a snag. The new husband had had a vasectomy. She knew it when she married him. She was just so sure he was the one. . .
. . . and she was just as sure that God had promised her a baby. She even bought a little outfit for a baby dedication.
Years passed. Maybe “Seth” wouldn’t come in the usual way. Her sister considered giving up a baby for adoption. Was THAT “Seth”? No; the sister kept the baby. She and her husband took in a 15-month-old foster child, Michael. His mother was dead and father was AWOL. Was THAT “Seth”?
Then his grandfather showed up, and wanted to take him.
She silently begged God, “Please don’t take Michael. I don’t care if I ever see the promised child. Just let me have Michael.”
God spoke, plain as day: “Do you want ‘Ishmael’ . . . or do you want ‘Isaac’”?
It nearly killed her, but she let him go.
That summer, on vacation in Texas, they kept seeing billboards about vasectomy reversal. Her husband asked her to write down the phone number. The price: $10,000. Fuhgeddaboudit.
One year later, he drove through Texas again and saw the same signs. He urged her to call locally. The doctor said they could make payments after putting half down. Half down was the exact amount of their income tax refund.
They went for it.
The next year, they were headed on a long trip to Colorado, but she felt too sick to drive. She called the doctor. Yes, the rabbit died. Moreover, her progesterone was dangerously low; if she had gone ahead with the trip without checking with her doctor, and hadn’t had a shot right then, she probably would have miscarried.
The ultrasound showed it was a boy.
As her pregnancy advanced, her husband reminded her that they had first met at that gas station on the way to the retreat . . . the one at which God had told her she’d meet her mate. Whoa!
However, the husband balked at the name “Seth.” He prayed about it. Three weeks later, he proclaimed that it HAD to be the name.
After all that God said would happen had happened . . . ya THINK?
And finally, the depth and breadth of the promise came to light. It turns out that this was just as big a deal for him as for her. All he had ever wanted to be in life was a father. But at age 20, when he was overseas with the Marines, his wife divorced him and blew town with their newborn son. He never got to know him well, or be the father he wanted to be.
But now that dream was coming true.
Ohhhhhh. She finally got it! Just as the Biblical Seth was a replacement for Eve’s lost sons, their Seth was a replacement for his.
Seth wasn’t just for her. He was for BOTH of them.
He was born. He was perfect. He was dedicated at church in the white outfit she had bought in faith five years earlier.
Seth was a darling baby who has grown into a handsome boy with a glow about him. You just KNOW he’s someone special. He came here for a purpose. It was all part of a plan.
God’s plan, like the one he has for your life, and for mine, and for everybody’s. Seth’s story is just one more example of how nothing can stand in His way to execute that plan. Nothing!
And so we celebrate “Seth the Impossible” . . .
. . . just like another Son of Promise . . . Who came in a miraculous, impossible way at the appointed time to execute God’s plan . . . Whose “impossible” resurrection after a terrible death we celebrate this Easter Day, and every day.
Jesus Christ is risen today. He lives!
Oh, Beloved, celebrate this: God keeps His promises.
Nothing is impossible for Him. Nothing!
Seth’s smile shows it. Easter proves it!
Hallelujah!
Amen! †