A Stealthy and 'Best' Beginning ...

(E-thought chronicles, continued ... )

"His mother said to the servants, whatever He says to you, do it." John 2:5 (NIV)

Mary was there from the beginning to the end. She was in the stable at his birth,
by the cross at his death.

Through the years, she must have taught Jesus the normal, everyday things a mother
teaches a son. How to comb his hair. How to wash his clothes. How to bake a cake.
How to tie his sandals. Maybe even how to say his first prayers.

But surely, in those final three years, that short time of His official ministry,
Mary was the one learning, and Jesus was the one teaching.

Once she learned, she taught others. Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary, a follower
of Jesus.

Imagine this day: The wedding host had run out of wine, an embarrassing event in
that culture, time, and place. They have no wine, Mary told Jesus. Even as she
did, He must have been thinking of how it would all end, how His ministry, just
beginning with this first miracle at a wedding in Cana, would end with His death
on Calvary.

"Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come," Jesus
said.

Moms know their children. Mary knew hers. Though this was only the first of His
recorded miracles, even now His time was short, with none to waste. And so, Mary
taught the others, quickly and simply, a mother's knowing testimony,"Whatever He
says to you, do it."

They did. And then Jesus, as always, gave them not something better, but instead
gave them the best.

Said the master of the banquet to the bridegroom, "You have saved the best wine
until now."

And that is just like Jesus.

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