When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:3–5)
Mary’s faith was such that she didn’t tell Him how to
solve the problem; she merely presented it. I was doing the same thing for our
son’s wedding. Even though I usually have some “good ideas for God” (how
preposterous), I have none for this one. Yet simply asking makes for a short
prayer (as in “Help!”) and often those short prayers don’t seem like enough, as
if I think I must nag at God?
Of course, the answer came at that Cana wedding, but
before it did, some obedience was required. Mary had to continue to trust Jesus
with the problem, even though He told her it was not yet the time for miracles.
The servants had to do what Jesus said, even though it seemed silly, even
dangerous, to fill stone jars with water and take them to the master of the
feast. It must have seemed sillier still for the host to draw out some of the
water and taste it. These jars were normally used “for the Jewish rites of
purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons” (John 2:6). This could be
the equivalent of filling a bathtub with water and then telling the wedding
host to have a sip.
Yet Mary obeyed, and the servants obeyed, and even the
wedding host obeyed, and they discovered how Jesus could change the ordinary to
extraordinary, even produce the best wine of the day.
I’m thinking that having God direct me to this passage
after my prayers for our son’s wedding problem is astonishing enough. Will He do
more? Will He ask me to do anything else? Are there others who need to obey so
that this contemporary wedding problem is solved as that ancient one was
solved? Time will tell. For now, He invites me to trust Him.
Florence Nightingale said, “If I could give you
information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary
ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His
service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how
God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all:
and I have never refused God anything.”
How important that the servants of the Lord do whatever He
tells us!
Lord, in the hard work of downsizing, and of preparing
for an anniversary celebration (tomorrow for my sister and brother-in-law), and
of getting ready to move, and of coping with a couple of family trials
concerning both my brothers, and of trying to adjust to other bad news too
complex to write about, this wedding problem is testing me too. Yet You know
what it is, and You know what to do. In any of these trials, if You have a job
for me, help me to be like Mary, and Florence Nightingale and all other
faithful servants. May I trust You, but also never refuse to obey You.
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