NO WINE, NO PROBLEM
By Cris Cramer
Here’s John 2:7-8 (NIV):
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
This is one tiny piece of the story told in John 2:1-11, where Jesus transforms water into wine for a wedding celebration. It’s the part where the amazing thing happens, where water stops being water and starts being something else, because Jesus needed it to. Part of the amazement for me, maybe the biggest part, is how very tiny this section of the story is.
I find the same thing true for a lot of the stories about miracles: it’s not merely that God demonstrates his power, but it’s how completely unfussy and undemonstrative God’s power is. Jesus completely changes the reality of the water in the jars, and he doesn’t need any preparation, or incantation, or ritual, or prayer, or hand-waving, or even time. He doesn’t fetch the water, touch it, speak any words over it, draw it out — as far as we can tell, he doesn’t even look at it! He doesn’t seem to put any effort at all into the transformation, as if it simply isn’t necessary. It just happens, easy as breathing. The ease, the apparent lack of exertion, makes the miracle all the more astonishing. Jesus does the impossible, and it’s like he doesn’t even have to try.
God is the same now as he was then, and this effortless power, this complete control is also the same. God is more real than reality, and nothing will keep him from doing anything he has in mind to do — the same in my life as in six water jars. Do I give him credit for that? Where in my life am I hanging on to the idea that this thing or that problem, this bad old habit or that situation simply isn’t going to change? What am I not taking to God, not even asking him about, because deep in my heart I’ve written it off as impossible? No reason to even try?
Are you holding on to something “impossible,” something that it’s not even worth bringing up to Jesus, because what could he possibly do? Remember the water in the jars, remember the ease with which Jesus changed reality then, and dare to believe he can do the same for you.
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Cris Cramer is a freelance writer of devotional articles that explore the human side of the Biblical stories and the personal nature of the God who interacts with the people in those stories, and with us. She writes other essays about life, faith, and the struggle to reinvent herself at stitchesandwords.wordpress.com, and can be contacted at criscramer@gmail.com 2011 by Cris Cramer. All rights reserved
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4 Comments until now.
For the Creator of the Universe, who spoke and everything came into being, wine would, indeed, be no problem.
All too often, we fall into the trap of thinking God’s work is like a magician’s work. But it’s not. As you pointed out, He doesn’t need to do anything but speak the word or think the thought and the deed is done.
But another point to be taken from this passage is one we miss even more often. Nothing is too small for God.
After all, how important could it be in the grand scheme of things that a wedding party have enough wine on hand? We’d think it wasn’t important at all to anyone but the people at the party and one in charge of preparation.
But the Creator of the Universe not only thought it was important. He thought it was important enough to fix the problem.
Can any of our problems really be too small to give to God?
I don’t think so.
Thanks!
AMEN! “dare to believe he can do the same for you.” He loves to be in the details of our lives!
How fitting – always and in every circumstance. I don’t think a day would go by when I would think “I needed to be reminded of that today.” Thank you
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I like you article,thank you very much!