Monday, June 9, 2008
There Can Be Miracles...When You Believe!

In John 2:1-11, the story of Jesus changing water into wine is told. This was the first miracle that was recorded in the book of John. The setting takes place at a wedding at Cana in Galilee. "Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding."

At a point of time, the wine ran out, wine that was probably for the people attending the wedding. In verse 3-5, Jesus mother then told him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

After reading v3-5, one may find it a bit confusing as to Mary’s statement in v5, after listening to Jesus’ seemingly unconcerned reply. From what I gather, I drew out 2 assumptions.

1.Mary knew Jesus was a special child. As Jesus’ mother, she probably saw the miracles that he did through out his growing stages. Hence, she believes that Jesus was able to help her with this matter. True enough, Jesus told the servants to fill six stone water jars with water and draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. The water was not only turned into wine but I believe it was turned into the best wine for that day. (V 10)

2.Mary knew the very nature of God, that if she ask for something and believes that it will be given to her, it will be done. As mentioned earlier, Mary knew Jesus was a special child. More importantly, she knew that Jesus was God. I believe Mary knew Jesus would indeed be her solution to the small issue she was facing.

The main point for these 2 assumptions was that she believed in Jesus for the miracle that He was about to do and God was testing her on this trust that she had. I felt that God has tested me on this very same trust for the miracle and solution that I needed regarding a situation I faced today.

My aunt and I went to Malaysia to do some shopping and some other stuff. While we were on our way back from JB to SG, we somehow followed the wrong crowd into the wrong queue and ended up back in SG without an exit permit chop from the custom officer. As we were not sure of the procedures, we assumed that these could be some of the new changes that were implemented. And so we went onboard our bus and started heading home. A quarter-way through the trip, we felt very uneasy about what had happened and I decided that we had better get back and clarify with the officers.

At that point of time, I was reminded of the story of how Elijah told his servant to go back and look toward the sea. Somehow, this urged me in my decision to ask my aunt to turn back and make the clarifications. We went back and found ourselves in a rather tight situation. However, I reminded myself that God is my protector and in Him I find my strength. I solely trusted in God for His help and the miracles and solutions started falling in place.

1.The ICA officer told us that she had problems deleting our entry in Singapore
- Praise be to God, the ICA officer’s supervisor said that the entry can be cleared by doing some special procedures
2.We were told that we might need to see the high comm. in Malaysia but as it was already evening and the office is probably closed.
-Praise be to God, we did not need to see the high comm.
3.We could have been detained in Malaysia for further investigation
-Praise be to God, the custom officers in M’sia was rather helpful. We were not detained and even if we were going to be detained, the ICA officer’s supervisor said that we could call the police for help.
4.We could have problems entering M’sia in the future if we had delayed any further.
-Praise be to God, there were no complications. We cleared everything smoothly.

Indeed the lesson that God has reminded through this was
A) Always trust in Him no matter what happens
B) Seek Him first in everything
C) Never make assumptions

Praise be to God for His miracles!

Labels: Devotion, Devotion:John