Water/Wine Served Daily

Just in case some confused wedding guest wanders down the jungle path in our back garden, I spent Wednesday chopping vines to clear the way.

We grow lavish tangles of wydellia, wisteria, smilax, kudzu and wild scuppernong grape vines in the back quarter of our yard.

I chopped and trimmed and pruned and weed whacked in mad abandon. This activity in no way actually related to our daughter’s wedding, but it proved a great way for me to work off energy before the event.

I highly recommend weed whacking to all fathers of the bride to be.

Eve and Mark, Helen and Donald, Jennifer and Julie, Helen’s sister, Ginny and I — all met at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat in their calendar. We laughed ourselves silly telling juvenile jokes about a generic groom, and teasing the engaged couple.

For years our kids have urged Ginny and me to write a book about the secret of a happy marriage; we might if we knew the secret. But we don’t have a clue as to why we thrive in romance after 40 years of marriage. It’s just the grace of God and nothing we do.

But for some strange reason, we seem to have been given what everybody else in the world wants to have.

The chief end of all human endeavor is to be happy at home.

And for us, Home is where Jesus dwells.

Anyhow, getting back to my vine chopping — as I worked I realized that in my diary entry yesterday I mentioned the first miracle Jesus performed; it was at a wedding.

He turned water into wine.

John’s Gospel is the only one that mentions this.

John says, “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him”.

The Greek work for miracle is semelon (I looked it up) That Greek word can also be translated by the English word, sign.

“This beginning of signs did Jesus… and manifested forth His glory”.

What sign was it that manifested His glory?

He mixed an instant beverage.

He did the same thing He always does, but He did it faster on this occasion.

God always acts consistent with Himself.

And for this wedding He turned six jugs of water into wine. John says each jug contained two or three firkins of water.

No, I have no idea what a furkin is either.

Every jug of wine in the history of the world started life as water.

Rainwater falls on the earth, vine roots absorb it and transport it to be stored in the grape. Something that grows naturally on the skin of the grape (I forget whether it is an enzyme, fungus or mold) causes the juice inside the grape to ferment and eventually become wine.

God changes water into wine every day.

At that wedding, Jesus did the same thing He always does in an abbreviated time span. I’ve read somewhere (sounds like C.S. Lewis) that every miracle or sign mentioned in the Gospels are natural, everyday acts of God writ large.

Jesus didn’t perform some cheap parlor trick at the wedding, He gave this sign to manifest to observers Who He is.

From my truck driving days I think of a shipping manifest which shows the exact contents of the truck. With His signs throughout the Gospels, Jesus shows His exact contents — that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Now here’s where things get interesting:

The ruler of the feast didn’t see the sign.

The bridegroom didn’t see the sign.

John mentions a governor of the feast (I’m not sure is he’s the same as the ruler of the feast) but whoever he was, he didn’t see the sign.

I’m not even sure if the Virgin Mary, who was at the wedding, saw the sign, John does not say one way or the other. The Bride’s reaction isn’t mentioned either.

But the Gospel specifically says, “The servants which drew the water knew”.

Important people missed the whole thing.

But the ones who served stood in a position to see the sign, to witness the miracle.

They still do.