Daily Lesson for January 12, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 2 verses 1 through 11:

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’6Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

The jar has to be filled first before it can be poured out. It has to receive before it can give. It has to be poured into before it can be poured from.

This is a sign for all who wish to be vessels in the spiritual life. A miracle happens within us. We do not know or understand how the miracle happens. Yet we know that water is mysteriously turned to wine in God’s vessels. It happens like a seed sprouting in the ground — of its own, hidden in mystery. 

And like the seed planted into the ground, something must be placed inside the vessel.  An empty jar cannot be the vessel for the miracle. It has to be full — all the way to the top preferably.

So there is reading, there is study, there is retreat, prayer, holy conversation.  There is time. There is water poured in before wine is ever poured out. 

The place of the miracle is inside us. Our vessel is the vessel of Cana. Fill it. Fill it to the brim.