Timing

I saw this humpback whale on Saturday in the Chesapeake Bay. Glad I had my camera ready!

Jesus told his mother that it wasn't time for him to show himself at the wedding at Cana. The mother of Jesus (who is only ever called that, never Mary, in the Gospel of John) ignores his protest.  And so he turns water into wine and this is his first miracle (according to John at least). The time is right, his mother is saying. Scarcity has come among the people, and the answer must be God's abundance.

The answer to scarcity is always God's abundance. It's ridiculously abundant. Hundreds of gallons of wine made from bathwater. All of Jesus' signs will be about abundance in the face of scarcity, of poverty, of loss, of death.  All of Jesus' signs will be about transformation. All of Jesus' signs will be windows into the nature and character of God Almighty who made heaven and earth, all that there is, seen and unseen.

And the timing of that abundance is not something that can always be planned out. It's a response to scarcity wherever scarcity exists. The trick for us is to recognize the signs and to recognize the need when we see it to show forth God's abundance ourselves.