The Long Road

When Jesus showed up at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, he  went because of an invitation. "Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding."  (John 2:2)  He was no party crasher.  Perhaps, the invitation went out to Him because His mother had been invited.  Or, perhaps, it was one of those extended family affairs and so He was included.  Whatever the case, Jesus went.  He went not to preach, or do anything spiritual, but simply to enjoy the days of celebration.  He converted water into wine as a favor to His mother.  No one would could blame Him for doing as she asked.

 

Obviously, Mary realized Jesus could help.  She did not tell Him what to do.  She simply stated the obvious, "They have no wine." (John 2:3)  Whatever Jesus chose to do about the lack of wine was up to Him.  As we see the moment unfolding in the Word, we see a model for us in our personal life with Jesus.  Too often we are more about telling Jesus what we think He should do about a problem we are seeing or experiencing instead of simply stating the thing that troubles us and leaving it up to Him to do whatever He might choose. 

 

What we can always do is trust Jesus to bless in extraordinary ways.  Not even Mary could have imagined that Jesus would take ordinary water and make over 100 gallons of extremely fine wine.  It is foolish and a bit brash of us to suggest to Jesus that we know the very best solution to some difficulty which is touching our life, or the life of someone we love, but it shows good sense and faith to trust Jesus with our life, or the life of someone important to us.  The truth is that what we see as the obvious best solution may not be so good at all.  Jesus does not just see what is just ahead, but instead He sees the long road which lies ahead.   And, it is the long road that He enables us to walk.