Once, a long time ago, there was a man who lived over in the Middle East. He was a particularly good man and he had several friends. His mother knew him better than most mothers know their sons, and even when he was very young, as a matter of fact before he was born, she knew he would grow up to be a very special person. He had an aunt and a cousin who were also privy to who he was and they were pretty excited about him too.

This man did grow up to be a special individual, in fact he became the most influential person who ever lived. Not much is known about his childhood, other than a few snippets – things that his mother probably remembered and passed along to one or more of the multitude of writers who chronicled his life. Although he must have been an extraordinary child, if there had been many mentionable things concerning his youth, surely some of the many writers of his life’s stories would have known and related it in their journals. There’s this one story about him being left behind in Jerusalem when his family left to go home from an event there and they had to go back and find him, and that’s about it. His family went back to look for him and where they found him and what he was doing was a very remarkable event. Other than that, my guess is that he wasn’t that unusual as a kid.

When he got grown however, he gathered several followers from among the peasantry of the area. Fishermen and other guys who had shown curiosity and interest in things he had to say were so enthralled by this fellow that they determined to put their lives aside and hang out with him. Lifelong fishermen just walked away from their nets and boats, such was his righteous allure to them. Little did they know at the time that this new direction would be a permanent, life-consuming pursuit – as it still is today when we learn of him. He was turning out, as they saw it, to be a surprisingly wise man who spoke things they had not heard before. He spoke with confidence and seemed to have an intimate knowledge of God, to whom he continually referred as his Father. Those guys eventually came to be known as his disciples, or followers who spent much time with him as his fame would grow. They also came to love him immensely, for they learned that he loved them profoundly. The cousin mentioned earlier, although not actually one of his group of followers, turned out to be the one who baptized him.

He actually first gained notice at a wedding feast in a place called Cana. There was apparently a party atmosphere, and several people were there. Might have even been more folks there than the organizers anticipated, because during the reception they ran out of wine. From the gist of the conversation, the guests had already had a good bit of the spirits and weren’t ready to shut down the gala just yet, but what do you do? No more fruit of the vine, but no one was ready to go home. Jesus’ mother – yes Jesus was His name (and references to Him will be capitalized henceforth), maybe acting on a hunch, took Him aside to give Him the sad news about the wine shortage. This had to be an obvious hint, and He almost seemed a bit exasperated, as this thing He was about to do wasn’t exactly what His ministry was about – He even called her “woman”, but such was His compassion, His absolutely boundless love for His fellow people (and Mom knew this), that she simply told the servants to just do whatever He told them to do – I can imagine her trying to hold back a big beaming smile, knowing that because of His precious compassion, He would do what needed to be done to take care of the situation. Although this act wasn’t the essence of His purpose, it will nevertheless go down as one of the most remembered events in all of history – it was Jesus’ first miracle.

He told the boys to round up some jars and fill them with water – yep, fill them all the way up. They were big jars too. Six of them, big old clay jars like they had back in those days. Once they filled them up with plain water, He performed His miracle, He then told them to give the master of the feast a shot of the water-become-wine, and lo and behold, the master said this wine was better than what they’d had at first. But then, what did you expect? This was Jesus, the Son of God, making His debut in what was to become the greatest life of miracles and hope for mankind that there has ever been on this earth. He wasn’t going to give His friends any second-rate juice, no He made the good stuff. And to the joy of all, the party resumed. But you need to know, there was no crazy or bad stuff going on there. Just some people having a good time and enjoying a wedding feast. This man was the Son of God. And He is now and forever the Son of God.

Somewhere later on down the road, His disciples came to realize just who this man was (and still is). He ended up giving up His life for them. And for you and me. I love Him, and we have a bond that reaches across that vast chasm that separates us for now, but I know He loves me too. What a feeling to know that! And He made some really good wine, and plenty of it!

Get out your Bible and read about Him and find out what He means to you. He stands at the door of your heart, patiently waiting for you to ask Him in, and when you make the decision to trust Him, hang on for the ride of your life! It’s kind of like getting a buzz and realizing you can’t drive so you need to give Him the keys. He knows exactly where to take you if you let Him. Sometimes He takes us over bumpy roads and sometimes through terrible storms, but He does that for our benefit. It’s scary at times, but we get to the point where we finally realize He has everything under control, then we can relax and have peace – peace you never dreamed was possible in a world full of turmoil. Such is His love for us. We’ll never regret getting to know Him. I can promise you that with complete confidence. Most of us know our driving is terribly impaired when we’re inebriated – drunken by consuming too much of the worldly wine – the drink of sin that corrupts the world and it inevitably leads to a catastrophic crash. He told the brethren at the last supper that He wouldn’t partake of the fruit of the vine again until He drinks it with them (and us) in Heaven, so He’s always sober.

I used to drink way more than what was good for me, but with His help I swore off many years ago, not saying I could drive for you, because I can’t, but He’s always available – the penultimate designated driver.

I can’t wait to try some of His Heavenly home brew when we get There.

So for now, why not just hand Him the keys?

MK