Sabbath Rest and First Miracles

What shall we take from today's box of blessings? Thoughts of weddings.

Many a garden finds itself festooned to house a wedding this time of year, which is quite fitting, as much of the life of spring in the garden rests on hope--hope that after all the soil preparation and seed planting, that just then--the "magic" will happen, the part of the garden tale in which the gardener lets the story have its head and become whatever it will be.

And so, beautifully, the gospel story of a wedding fits this season's devotions. Beautiful because we relate so easily to the downside of this story, a tale in which something--poor planning, an unexpected booming attendance, even inadvertent spillage--we never are told, but some unknown reason of chance or human frailty turns the most blessed event to a thing fraught with stress and gloomy expectations. They have no more wine.

This is not, however, the end of the story. Dark meets dawn when human compassion finds a voice and makes secret plea to the one who could solve the problem, solve it before the horror goes public, solve it while the need is not quite yet an embarrassment. They have no more wine.

And so the poorly-esteemed servants received the honor of carrying the cup of faith (a thing necessary to all miracles) and those most blessed never knew all that came to pass under that particular soil, when the seed broke its casing and began to grow. The first miracle.

So if you are tempted to look out life's window and wonder when anything might break through that spring-muddy soil--that place where you've spent every accommodating day preparing a bed conducive to life, do not grow anxious. There is even now a season for happy meditation on what is yet to be.

John 2:
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

Happy miracles!