When Holt was just a baby, I had to go to a meeting one night for my job. I was not very happy that I had to attend a two-hour meeting at night after a long day of teaching school. Holt was only a few months old, so I was upset that my job was taking me away from spending time with my new baby boy.  As I sat through the meeting, trying to pay attention, I could not wait until it was over so I could get home. I was anxious, hoping I could get home in time to get my hands on Holt before he went to sleep for the night.

When the workshop ended, it was already dark outside.  I hurried to the door, so I could be one of the first people in the parking lot to get in my car and leave. I had my car keys in my hand, and  I was ready to beat the crowd of teachers following behind me. As I walked outside, for some strange reason I will never understand, I began to run through the parking lot. Before I could get to where my car was parked, I had to cross a wide driveway. This driveway had, for some strange reason I will never understand, a huge concrete median right in the middle of it.

As I began running towards my car, to get home to my baby, I could not see nor did I remember seeing, that foot-high, very hard concrete median!  As I ran towards my car, the median knocked my feet right out from under me, I tripped and fell down hitting the side of my head on the concrete.  As soon as I realized what had just happened, I jumped up quickly because I was so embarrassed, and I started trying to feel around for the car keys that I had apparently dropped when I fell. As I tried to walk to my car, I felt of the side of my eyebrow, and I could feel it was all wet. Soon blood was rolling down the side of my face.

Here is where the real embarrassment started… if you do not know what happens when you fall down and hit your head on concrete and then jump back up again quickly, I can tell you…..you pass out. Yep, there I was, passed out on the side of the parking lot, blood all over my face. By this time, everybody is walking by looking at the crazy lady laying on the side of the road with a crowd of on-lookers standing over her in a circle. Someone called an ambulance for me, and I remember coming in and out of consciousness  thinking….”All I wanted to do is get home to my baby!”

The ambulance comes; the EMTs load me up on a stretcher, then carry me to the emergency room. Someone calls my husband, and my sweet friend Elizabeth follows the ambulance to the hospital to stay with me until Dave can get there. I will never forget when Dave walked into the hospital room to see me, after the blood was cleaned away and my eyebrow was stitched, he just shook his head and said, “What in the world were you doing?”

I started crying, because I felt so silly and said, “I was just trying to get home to see my baby!” Needless to say, Holt was fast asleep by the time I got home that night…  Concrete. It is hard and does not budge when you get in it’s way. I know this for a fact and have a scar to prove it.

Last week, I sat at my kitchen table one morning, thinking about my life and praying about situations that seem impossible.  I thought about that concrete median and how my problems, at times, seem to feel just as tough and solid as stone. Problems that are simply too heavy for me to carry and too big for me to move. Problems that seem settled. Problems that feel like they have been cemented to me forever.  I pray, but still wonder, “God, how can you do anything about problems that seem as solid as that concrete median? Can you really change concrete situations? Have you ever moved concrete?”

My mind started racing through stories describing all the miracles that Jesus did in the Bible: the fish and the bread, the plagues, the giant, the Red Sea….I could think of nothing made of concrete. Then, like a movie playing in front of my eyes, the Holy Spirit gave me a perfect picture in my mind. That huge stone,  placed in front of Jesus’  tomb, was just like a big concrete median. That same stone was miraculously moved out of the way to reveal an empty tomb within. Jesus, buried inside, was brought back to life and no heavy, concrete stone could stop him. I began to picture my problems, as heavy as that stone, being moved and shifted until God completely moves them out of the way, freeing me again.

My friend, I believe that we all have those problems that appear immovable and solid as concrete. We cannot make those problems budge on our own, but there is One who can. He has done it before, and he can do it again. No problem is too stiff, too solid, or too settled that God cannot move. Trust His love; read His word; claim His strength, and get out of His way.

I have some big problems, but thankfully, I have bigger God who makes moving concrete look easy.