More Than We Can Do

We are all asked to do more than we can do. Every hero and heroine in the Bible does more than he would have thought possible to do, from Gideon to Esther to Mary. Jacob, one of my favourite characters, certainly wasn't qualified. He was a liar and a cheat; and yet he was given the extraordinary vision of angels and archangels ascending and descending a ladder which reached from earth to heaven.

In the first chapter of John's Gospel, Nathaniel is given a glimpse of what Jacob saw, or a promise of it, and he wasn't qualified either. He was narrow minded and unimaginative, and when Philip told him that Jesus of Nazareth was the one they sought, his rather cynical response was, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' And yet it was to Nathaniel that Jesus promised the vision of angels and archangels ascending and descending upon the son of man.

Madeleine L'Engle

Walking on Water