Food is my love language. I want to feed hungry people. So this year I've created a fusion of food for your body and food for your soul. This will be a year of delicious recipes I'm making now combined with relatable reflections divine readings from the book of John. If you consume what I'm preparing, you'll be nourished. That's a promise. Join me if you're hungry.
The Problem of Wine
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I wonder if you are preparing for a feast tomorrow? I wonder if you are expecting company or going to gather with others for a feast they are preparing? And is the feast a tradition on the day called Easter or is it a time of gathering to remember and receive once again the loving of suffering and loving of living Jesus did for you? Today's reading and reflection are about a feast with Jesus loving people with a miracle, the first recorded. He did it behind the scenes and the witnesses were servants. These witnesses were like the first witnesses to his birth, the shepherds, ordinary people doing what they ordinarily do on their ordinary days. John 2: 1-11 NLT "Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus’ mother told him, “They’re just about out of wine.” Jesus said,”Is that any of our business, Mother - yours or mine? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.” She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.” Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim. “Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host,” Jesus said, and they did. When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!” This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him." Oscar was my seat-mate on an overseas flight. He was on his way from Wisconsin to India. He had recently finished his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and shared about the four grueling years of studying and working. Oscar told us he was retuning to his homeland in India to get married. His bride-to-be was meeting him at the airport and this would be their first time meeting in person. From there she would take him straight to his bachelor party. The wedding would follow and last about a week. He laughed (maybe at my obvious shock listening to his wild story), then mentioning his parents and her parents knew each other better than he and his future wife because the parents planned the entire wedding together. The wedding story John tells also lasted many days and turns out, they didn’t have enough wine. Somehow Jesus’ mom found out and she tells Jesus. Following his dismissal of her request, she presses forward by telling the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do. What did his mother know? She knew to bring the problem to Jesus. She knew to act on what Jesus said was necessary. She couldn’t fix what was wrong. She asked the one who could. This was an ordinary wedding in an ordinary village with ordinary people, pots, water, servants. No ones life was at stake. This was the first sign Jesus gave of his diety and mighty power - at a wedding where the only people who saw him do it were wait staff, five new disciples, and his mom. I couldn’t help but think of the song Joy To The World, the Lord has come. Jesus begins his gathering of disciples with an expression of his abundant love for people. He takes simple water and makes the best wine. His new students believed in him. They had learned about him from studying the Torah. They followed him from listening to someone’s testimony. But they believed in him when they saw a miracle on an ordinary day, behind the scenes of a wedding party. When did you first believe? What about Jesus keeps you following him? Prayer Jesus I humbly admit to being aware of so much need and letting it turn to worry, anger, fear, helplessness. But Joy to the World, you’ve come and I can bring the need I know of to your attention. Teach me to pray the problems and not my solutions. Today I want to tell you about these people, these situations I know are in need of who you are and what you do: I love you miracle working God. Amen |
Hi! I'm Laura DeGroot, The Caffeinated Woman
Food is my love language. I want to feed hungry people. So this year I've created a fusion of food for your body and food for your soul. This will be a year of delicious recipes I'm making now combined with relatable reflections divine readings from the book of John. If you consume what I'm preparing, you'll be nourished. That's a promise. Join me if you're hungry.
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