Pause

The best gifts are those received from someone who knows us well. These are the kinds of gifts that we celebrate with great gladness!

Take time to consider the gifts you have received from the One who knows you best, and celebrate God's great goodness and generosity.

Listen

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

John 2:1-5

Think

A wedding in Jesus’ time was a weeklong celebration. To run out of wine would have been a great social embarrassment. We see Mary turn to Jesus to solve this dilemma; how did she know that Jesus would take care of things? Sometimes in the translation the affection Jesus showed with the word “Woman” is lost. Jesus meant no disrespect to Mary. We see that Mary was confident Jesus would provide in the midst of the celebration, and told others to obey him. Not only did she trust Jesus with the dilemma, but she also trusted him with the details of the dilemma. She gave her problem over to Jesus and left him to work it out.

Too often when we have a problem, we want to tell Jesus what the solution should be as well. We can be confident that Jesus hears and cares about our needs, though. Instead of trying to work out the details ourselves, we can give our problems to Jesus, being confident that God will handle the situation.

Laura Rector

Pray

Jesus, thank you for being God over the details, seeing my needs, and caring for me. Amen.

Go

Open your heart now as you would a brightly-wrapped package,
Confident that the Giver of Life has provided you the greatest gift,
The gift of life.
Live today as a celebration, a time of giving back—
To God
And to all the world.