February 6-12
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Though turning water into wine was the first recorded miracle, I can’t imagine that it was His first miracle. Here is what we have recorded for this miracle:
John 2:1-5
1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
4 Woman, what wilt thou have me to do for thee? that will I do; for mine hour is not yet come.
5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
So Mary asked Jesus to help with a wine shortage at a wedding.
Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ. It can only be assumed that she had some deep feelings towards who He was and what His life mission was. Though Mary was the mother, she turned to her Son for help. When He responded that He would help with whatever she needed, she quickly told the servants to do whatever He said.
When we study the first recorded miracle of Christ, we often look at what it taught us about Christ. It taught us that He had power over the elements and loved His mother. There are so many beautiful lessons that we can learn about Christ from His first known miracle.
But today I want to talk about Mary. Though Christ is our ultimate example, Mary isn’t too bad of an option to emulate as well. Let’s look at the woman who raised the Savior of the world.
She knew Him
I want to reiterate the fact that Mary was His mother. We have many records of Christ’s time with the apostles, and we pore over those records and soak up everything we can about them. In comparison, there is relatively little from Christ’s mother.
Christ was 33 years old when He died. His public ministry with the apostles only lasted three years. Where do you think the rest of His life was spent? Though the answer to that could be a myriad of places, I would imagine that a great amount of time was spent with His mother. I also wouldn’t be surprised if He spent more time around His mother than any other single individual. I obviously can’t prove that, and I don’t even necessarily assert that. I merely point out that there are a couple of missing decades. If we had a record from Mary, I assume that there would be SO much more.
What did Mary see that we don’t know about? How often did she turn to Him as her Savior? How often did she turn to Him as her Son? How often did she learn from watching Him and hearing Him speak? How many times was she rendered speechless by His example?
Mary knew her Son. She probably knew Him better than a majority of people who knew Him during His mortal life. Her personal relationship with Him was just that…personal.
And because she knew Him, she trusted Him
The miracle of turning water into wine is just one example we have of their relationship, but it does come with implications.
There was a problem that Mary was facing: a wine shortage at a wedding. I want to highlight the fact that comparatively speaking, this was unimportant. Out of all the miracles that Christ accomplished, creating wine for a wedding was negligible. When you consider the magnitude of His atoning sacrifice, this was literally nothing.
It might seem a little callous to call this miracle nothing, but I do it on purpose. I highlight its insignificance so I can highlight how much He loved His mother. I want to highlight how much He loves us. Christ didn’t perform the atonement out of duty or because He wanted the glory. All of His actions were motivated by love. He didn’t look at smaller tasks and scoff that they were beneath Him because it was never about status. He performed the small, unglamorous tasks right alongside the unspeakably beautiful ones because He loved the people around Him.
And I think it’s absolutely beautiful that Mary knew she could ask Him to help. Because of the time that she had spent with Him, she knew that He loved her and would help her.
I know there are times when people believe that they can’t ask for something because it’s not important to the Lord. I know there are plenty of times that we don’t even think about praying for it.
I believe that if we knew the Savior the way that Mary did, we wouldn’t ever hesitate to ask. If we can attain a personal relationship (and we most certainly can), then we have a deep and abiding understanding that He wants to help us.
Does that mean He will always say yes? No, because we need to grow sometimes. But we don’t ever need to shy away from asking.
Whatever He tells you to do, do it
We can see more of Mary’s trust in her Son when she addresses the servants.
Not only did she reach out to Christ because she knew she could count on Him (even for the little things), she also told the servants to obey His commands.
She knew her Son would know what to do, and she knew that following Him would bring what she desired. She must have also known that the servants would be confused about what He was going to ask. And she was right. If she hadn’t said anything and Christ had asked them to fill pots with water, they probably would have hesitated a bit. Perhaps in the beginning of Christ’s mortal life, Mary also saw some things that were peculiar. However, as she grew to know Him, she knew to simply trust what He said.
In a slightly-less-perfect-but-still-relevant example, my husband knows more about cars than anyone I know. I have had countless experiences with him where something has gone wrong and Conner figures it out and saves the day. Even when things seem odd, I have learned to do exactly what he tells me.
I remember there was a time when I had tried to jumpstart my car for who knows how long. I plugged everything in and it wouldn’t turn over. Conner came outside, plugged everything in (the same way I did I might add), listened, and then he instructed me to turn the ignition on and off really fast. Sure enough, it worked. Somehow his instructions had made the automatic jump starter work. Another time, he was an hour away from me when I couldn’t get the car to turn on. He had me put him on speakerphone so he could listen to it, and sure enough, he knew exactly what to do and helped me through it. We had to push the car so it was moving while trying to turn it on. I don’t know how it worked, but it did.
Confidence in the Savior
I have become so confident in my husband’s car skills, that I offer him out on a regular basis whenever I hear that my friends have car trouble. I have also become very confident in his willingness to help that I don’t think twice about offering.
I knew my husband in high school (barely), and I remember our mutual friend talking about his mechanical abilities. When I had car troubles in high school, I didn’t call Conner because I didn’t know Conner.
Now that I know him, I trust that he can and will help. For any little car trouble, I call Conner immediately. I don’t worry because I know he can help me.
These are feelings Mary experienced as well. She knew of her Son’s abilities and she knew of His willingness and so she approached Him with confidence.
As we come to have the same kind of personal relationship with the Savior as Mary, we will approach Him with confidence. When we hit obstacles, it will feel natural to turn to Him. We will run into obstacles, and they won’t affect us in the same ways because we know He really can (and wants to) help us.
Autumn Dickson 