It has helped that I've had Chris August's "Water into Wine" song on repeat since I bought it. I mean the entire cd has been my music to and from work, but the first time I heard this song I was like "Woah, this fits me, every day, every moment, every hour, every struggle, every thought." It is rare that I connect with a song and so it's the first song I play in the morning and the last song I play at night. I mediate on the words in that song and think about them and soak them in.
So finally after weeks and weeks of listening to that song I went and found the passage in the Bible in John 2: 7 & 8, that talks about Jesus changing water in to wine. And at first I was kind of like, big deal, it's such a puny miracle, like He didn't heal anyone's crippled legs, He didn't bring anyone back from the dead, He just changed a liquid into a different kind of liquid. But to be honest it is a big deal. Jesus doing anything is a big deal, but seriously this is the first miracle that John mentions, the first of many, this miracle was the first that revealed His Glory. That is important.
But what is even more important is what the wine did. You see it was custom to bring out the good stuff at the beginning of the wedding so that guest could get tipsy and when they ran out of the really good stuff they would bring out the cheap stuff and no one would really taste it. But this wine, this wine that use to be tasteless water was the best these people had ever tasted. There was something about this "transformed" wine that tasted like no other.
Jesus could have easily tossed money at His mother or people around Him and said go get the cheap stuff, but instead He chose to say, give me what you have, just water and I'll transform it into something better, something extraordinary, and for those people and for that wedding it was the best tasting wine ever. This miracle small yes, was still huge. It not only revealed His glory but allowed the disciples to put their faith in Him.
Jesus didn't cast it aside as nothing, he didn't do something cheap. He was a craftsmen, a glorious craftsmen. We live in a world today where cheap is popular and true craftsmanship cost much, so we tend to replace rather than repair. We run around in circles trying to find the right way, trying follow what the world says, if it's broken don't fix it, just replace it. If it's all gone it's useless. If there is no more love, just get out and go find better love. Out with the old and in with the new."But Jesus, Jesus is irreplaceable. He broke for us but we could not find someone new. He was cast aside, but we could find no replacement for His love, But oh how we have tried" -Catherine Sylvester.
We've tried to fill our bellies on cheap wine. Tried to fill our hearts with cheap love. Tried to fill our minds with useless knowledge. Tried to put our faith in the seen, instead of the unseen. But it's failed us every time. Why, because we need the glory revealed, we need the water before the wine, we need faith in the unseen, the love of Christ, we need to be transformed, not just replaced. We need to be changed from water into wine. We need the transforming glory of Jesus.
We all have the answer, it lives in us. He lives in us. The unique, the one of a kind Jesus.
The one who says "Give me what you have and I will do amazing things, I will fulfill your thirst like water into wine."
He will take our nothing and He will turn it into something.
The amazing thing about my Jesus is that He knows me. He knows I struggle everyday with greed and lies and lust and temptation, He sees me at my worst and yet He redeemed me, He set me free and every day He gives me a choice to live in that sin or to live in Him. And every day I stumble. I am far from perfect, but each day I choose Him, He is perfecting me. Each day I step further away from the lies, further away from the world, and my ordinary becomes extraordinary. Every day I struggle with my weakness, trying to do things on my own and yet when I choose to let Him carry me, to take my burdens, Him and only through Him am I strong.
It's not about being the best, it's not about fitting in. It's not about fulfilling the thirst of this parched world. It's not about pleasing anyone but Him. He's transforming me, it's my choice. And I know in my heart that I can walk away any time I want. But I won't and I can't, because I wouldn't survive without Him. He doesn't need me, He wants me.
He looks at me and sees my potential. He doesn't see my failures, He doesn't see my mistakes, He sees water being transformed into wine.
Slowly transforming,
HIS and yours,
Cami
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