I’m excited to share installment #4 in a series called Making Scripture Your Own. (Read intro post here.) Jama Kehoe Bigger is just one of the best people I’ve ever known. I met her through her role as director of the Midwest Writers Workshop—she is another of the treasured friends I’ve found there. I adore her, and she has a way of making you feel loved and important. And she always—always—points people to God because her faith is so strong and so inspiring. Enjoy!

Luke 1:37. My testimony, my emblem, my banner, my flag, my shield, the logo on my pennant

My passport to faith. My jersey number: 137

I don’t have a tattoo. But guess what it would be? Luke 1:37

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.”

One summer day a teenage girl dove into a swimming pool and broke her neck. The doctors said she would be a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down, unable to use her legs or arms for the rest of her life. But this girl and her family believed that God still worked miracles, so they prayed and believed that God would step into her life and restore mobility to her body.

In faith she held onto the promise With God nothing is impossible—Luke 1:37—and trusted in Him Who is able to do great and mighty things. The miracles sometimes seemed small but they kept coming. Holding yarn ball, squeezing an orange, rolling over. Then standing before a walker, then hesitant steps with the walker. Then rising from a chair, then baby steps unaided. Often buffeted by time and setbacks, she kept her faith and gave glory and praise to God as her miracles continued. The progress came slowly and some days she cried in frustration, disappointment and anger that her life was so changed. She still couldn’t run and she still couldn’t jump. No cartwheels like she did as a cheerleader. But she knew her life in Christ was more than what she could physically do; her spirit was strong and her love for God could run with the wind.

Maybe that was her best miracle of all.

All her life she lived by this: For with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). And by this: God is faithful.

Faith doesn’t make things easy—it makes things possible.

…Possible to live with faith and hope and gratitude and joy in all the years of my life…. that what may seem impossible is possible:

• My teens: attending high school and college
• My 20s: receiving a Master’s degree, teaching, marriage, pregnancies, two children
• My 30s: mothering 2 boys (14 months apart). launching a business
• My 40s: mothering high school boys, growing a business
• My 50s: becoming a grandma
• My 60s … so far, a new job, and a retired husband

Just as the angel of the Lord told Mary, “For with God nothing shall be impossible,” so I have held onto this as a promise for me.

What if things in life have gone more sideways from anything I could have imagined?

I remember those words: with God nothing shall be impossible.

With. God.

What was impossible, now is possible.

And I have incredible hope. Because nothing is more powerful than God’s love for me.

Hi! I’m Jama Kehoe Bigger, the writer of daily Happy Day Moments, author of Then Came A Miracle, and Director of Midwest Writers Workshop. I’m an unapologetic Happyologist with a desire to share the importance of “living with gratitude” … finding a “moment” each day to be grateful. I’m a lover of family and girlfriends and Jesus and words and chocolate and encouraging others (especially writers!). I am married to the wonderful John and have two sons and four grandchildren.