The Flight of the Bumblebee

During World War II on Air Force bases around the nation the United States put up posters that bore the following inscription: “By all known laws which can be proved on paper and in the wind tunnel—the bumblebee cannot fly. The size of his wings in relation to his body, according to aeronautical and mathematical science simply means that he cannot fly. It is an impossibility. But of course, the bumblebee doesn’t know about these rule, so he goes ahead and flies anyway.”

I’m not sure about the truth of that information. In fact, snopes.com has fact checked that tidbit as being false. The validity of the words on the poster is not what I am concerned with though; I just love the thought of the impossible being achieved. As Christians we know that what is impossible with man is possible with God. 

In Matthew 9 there are five people that come to Jesus needing something impossible. Like fat bumblebees with tiny wings, they flew to Jesus and found exactly what they needed. In this chapter there is a woman who has been sick for twelve years, two blind men, a mute man, and a young girl who had passed away. In each of those situations Jesus did something impossible: He opened the eyes of the blind, opened the mouth of the mute, healed the woman, and even raised the dead. 

The woman who had been sick for twelve years had suffered greatly. Luke, who was a physician by trade, tells us there was no human cure for her bleeding issue. Mark tells us she had spent all of her money in vain seeking a cure. Obviously medicine was quite primitive back then, but we know some of the remedies prescribed in the Talmud. There were eleven prescriptions, but they are superstitions more than medicine. One of the remedies was to carry a corn kernel that was fished out of the dung of a white female donkey; another was to carry around the ashes of an ostrich egg, using a linen bag in the summer and cotton bag in the winter. This is the kind of treatment this poor woman spent the last of her savings on. 

Her condition was impossible, especially considering her medical options. “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27).” I’m not suggesting that God gives us everything we ask for or want. He is not a genie and you are not Aladdin. But He has the ability to do all things, and our prayer life should show we believe that to be true. He is the God who makes impossible things possible.