Optimist’s Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

Jesus and His disciples had been invited to a wedding. In Jesus‘s day, a wedding was an important event, and the tradition was to celebrate for several days. They would have a banquet for many guests, who joined together to celebrate this new life joined as husband and wife. Usually, they would serve the best food and wine so that the people could enjoy the very best of the celebration. But even though the planning was carefully done for the wedding, something happened and the wine ran out. Now, during Jesus’s time, we need to remember that wine to those people was like water to us. The water then wasn’t good, but when they used it to make wine, it became healthy again.

You can read this story in the gospel of John chapter 2. It tells us about how the wine ran out at the wedding in Cana, and how Mary asked Jesus to do something about it, so then He does.

He turns the water in to wine so there was enough for these most important guests.

It tells us in the scripture that this was the first of the miraculous signs of Jesus. This is where He revealed His glory, and His disciples put their faith in Him. The gospel of John speaks often about signs and about faith. A sign uses things in our world to point to God‘s presence, and God‘s glory that is around us and among us. This sign today in this story where Jesus changed the water to wine is one to remember. This story is a unique sign of

God’s glory being revealed through His Son, Jesus.

What we can learn from this lesson is that just as Jesus changes water to wine, He can also change people to make them pure, holy, and acceptable onto God. It shows us how Jesus can take something that is empty, tired, worn out, and turn it into something rich, fragrant, and the best to offer. Through His presence and His care, Jesus can give us new life. He can fill the emptiness in our lives and He can take a little bit of what we have to offer and turn it into something that is better than we could ever provide ourselves.