What do we do when we run out of wine?

John 2, 1-10 which speaks of The Wedding Feast of Cana is one Bible passage that greatly inspires me.

We see Jesus, His Mother and the disciples at a wedding. When the wine runs out, Jesus’ mother somehow comes to know and tells Him, “They have no wine.”

At this juncture, let’s reflect on the pre-wedding day preparations. The families of the bride and groom must have spared no time, effort, money to make sure the wedding reception would go well. They must have spent time deciding on the venue, whom to invite, what the menu and refreshments should be. They must have cooked the best food, acquired the best wine they could afford; in short, gone all out to ensure that the day was one which would be memorable and talked about for a long time to come.

In our lives too, we make plans. We prepare checklists. We go through these lists time and again to see if we have missed out on anything. We even try to anticipate what could possibly go wrong, where the gaps could be, and work to plug them.

And then, something unexpected happens. Something we never thought or prepared for.
Everything gets thrown out of gear.

Maybe the loved one we prayed for so earnestly, goes even further away from The Lord. A project, into which we put in much effort, never sees the light of day, or falls apart. We feel like failures. We lose hope. We don’t know what to do next. Sometimes, we don’t know whether we even want to go on.

We run out of wine. What do we do?

Jesus’ mother chose to go to the One Person She knew could make a difference. She chose to be an “intercessor” in this case, to go and tell Jesus- they have no wine. How blessed we are if we have friends and intercessors who will go to Jesus when we feel low, when we feel defeated, when we feel we cannot carry on and tell Him- Jesus, they have no wine.

Let’s look at Jesus’ response. He very categorically says- “My time has not yet come.” Her response? She goes to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” She KNOWS Jesus. She knows He will never refuse her. Do we have that kind of faith?

We come to the servants - Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. (John 2, 7). One thing we need to remember- there were no taps in the houses in those days. The servants had to therefore take a vessel, go to the well, draw out the water, fill the vessel, go back home, fill the jar; return to the well and repeat the whole process. (And there were 6 jars to fill)

This was Jesus’ first miracle. To the servants, He was just another guest at the wedding. They had no idea who He really was. They certainly did not know what the outcome of their obedience would be. And yet, they obeyed Him. Not only that, they filled the jars to the brim. To top up the jars, they might have had to take an extra trip to the well.

We know Jesus. We know the whole story. We know the outcome of the miracle.
How quick are we to obey Jesus when He tells us to do something? And when we do obey Him, do we give our best? Do we make that extra effort, even when we don’t know what the end result will be?
Jesus changed the water into wine and it turned out to be the BEST wine of the wedding.

When we feel discouraged, low on energy, disappointed that in spite of giving our best, the outcomes are deplorable, lets keep one thing in mind- Jesus did not ask the servants to change water into wine. He said- fill the jars with water.

He says the same to us. Fill the jars with water. Don’t give up. Obey even when you don’t understand. Give your best. And KNOW that I will change it all. I will change the water into wine, I will turn defeat into victory, tragedy into triumph; the outcome will be the BEST.