Journal Entry ~ 10/25/18

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. - John 2:11

In this story, Jesus is at a wedding with his mother and those first few disciples who were already following him, but He hadn’t yet begun His true ministry work. His mother came to Him during the wedding and said, “They have no wine.”  Initially, Jesus doesn’t want anything to do with the problem because He doesn’t believe His hour has come. But Mary pushes back by turning to His disciples and telling them to do whatever Jesus says, almost as if she didn’t even hear Jesus. Isn’t that just like a mom?

This being one of the more popular stories from the Bible, I’ve heard and read it multiple times as a believer, but I never really spent any significant time meditating on the story. A few things have occurred to me as I’ve meditated on the story. I find it interesting that Mary pushes Jesus to do His first public miracle at a wedding by turning water into wine. I found myself wondering why he chose to begin his ministry with something as insignificant as turning water into wine. I wonder if the human part of Jesus hesitated at the same thing I did. He has the power to do anything at all. I mean He can heal the sick and raise the dead. It would seem to me that His power would be better served doing something like that rather than making water turn to wine at a wedding for His first public demonstration. But I know that the Creator of the universe doesn’t make mistakes, so the intention to do that specific miracle at that specific time was very purposeful. So, it’s up to me to dig a little deeper, and think about what the story is truly trying to teach me.

As I continue to meditate, the first thing occurs to me is that Jesus cares about our big trials and our little trials. He promises to provide a way out of any  valley that we are in no matter the size. I’ve seen God step into the biggest moments of my life and bring about a change, and I’ve seen him step into the most it significant moments in awesome ways. The size of the trials doesn’t matter to God, what matters is the condition of our heart. When we have submitted to him as Lord over all aspects our lives, He blesses that obedience and big and small ways, in big and small moments. 

Then I started to think about who is this miracle for?  It’s certainly not for the bride or the groom, any of their family members or other guests in attendance. From what we read in scripture, those throwing the party don’t seem to notice the wine was short and then replenished.  The only ones that knew anything about what was going on was Mary, the disciples, and the servants.  Mary clearly already knew what was going on, so this miracle doesn’t seem to be for her - that leaves the disciples and the servants.

But I have to stop on the family and their guests - it doesn’t appear as if any of them even knew that the had happened! That struck me as interesting. How many times do we benefit from God intervening in our lives in a miraculous way, and were largely unaware? How often do miracles happen in our lives that we don’t even see? How often is He good to us before we even know to ask for anything?

So many more thoughts running through in my head now that I’ve dug a little deeper into this passage. But I’ll have to wait till tomorrow. For today, I’m looking for the miracles that I didn’t even ask for, so I can see the glory of God in my life and the lives of those around me.


Press on ~ you are loved 💗

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