So, the wine is gone…

In reading today’s reflection by Pope Francis about the wedding at Cana, it struck me further….The wine is our love for each other, the joy that we feel, the desire to be in union with the other. I thought about how the wine ran out, just as sometimes that does in our marriages. Bad planning, oversight, neglect, using more than we are putting in, etc., it all contributes to finding ourselves scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Jesus can change the ordinary into extraordinary though. Maybe it’s the mundane household chores or the tiring commute to work. Maybe the passion and desire is not only gone, but been replaced with frustration, dislike, even disgust (I bet water quality wasn’t always great in Biblical times).

Whatever it may be, Jesus can transform it into something amazing and more desirable than even the good you had before. He won’t do it without your  request though:

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” …His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

He might not do it in your timing either:

What does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

And it will take work by you:

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

You might be taken by surprise. The servants didn’t know all what would become of all the water they labored to carry in and the Master was perplexed by the best coming second, but the party could continue now. The cups overflowed.

This new wine might look the same on the surface, but with the transformative love that you’ve allowed Jesus to work in you, even those mundane or difficult daily realities can become beautiful moments ripe with delicious love and lead to joyful celebrations.