March 2, 2009

Read John 2:1-12

[T]he steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from…Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.—John 2:9, 11

Sometimes, especially when I’m talking to people who don’t share my same faith in Christ, I wish that there were the sort of wine-to-water enormous and mind-boggling miracles to support my case for faith. So, from time to time, I reread the lyric to a song by Peter Mayer that I copied into my journal once: Wine from water is not so small/But an even better magic trick/Is that anything is here at all/So the challenging thing becomes/Not to look for miracles/But finding where there isn’t one.

This frame of mind changes my entire experience of any particular day. Simply walking out the door to my car each morning before work becomes a prayer of humble thanks—for the smell of the outdoors, for the satisfying crunch of the leaves still on the ground juxtaposed against the first signs of new life on the branches above me, the bright sun and the noisy birds calling overhead—God’s daily generosity and constant reminders of His mighty presence.

The enormity of the miracle isn’t the fact that Jesus turned water into wine, it’s that God loves us so much that He reveals His glory to us over and over, nourishing our belief. What’s more, He loves us so much that He sent His son to demonstrate that love in a way that we might understand.

Pray: Living God, You fill the world around us with miracles. Open our hearts and our minds so that we might recognize Your power and beauty in our encounter of the world. We praise You for sending us Your son, who revealed You through not only miracles, but also by showing understanding, acceptance and love for all Your children. May we follow in His footsteps to do the same. Amen.

Holly Knights and her boyfriend, Matt, will be very sad to say goodbye to The Gathering when they move to Chicago this summer.