I was so excited to be going to the wedding of the daughter of my closest friend, Ruth. Her daughter Sarah was just 15, but she had known her groom to be, John, all her life, and they were the best of friends, so we knew it would be a successful marriage. This was the first time I had travelled since Joseph had died, so I asked Jesus, my son, who normally doesn't bother going to social events, if he would accompany me.  He said he was pleased to do it, and I was grateful to him for making it possible for me to go.

 

Jesus, by this stage was getting on in years himself, but he had never shown any interest in getting married. He helped Joseph in the carpentry shop up until the day he died, and then took over the work himself. He also went to the synagogue to discuss and pray each day. But his social life was pretty limited. Just recently, he surprised me by taking off and going into the desert. I knew he wanted to be alone to consider the next step in his future, but when he returned after 40 days, he was just a skeleton. He hadn't eaten during the entire time, and from the look of him, hadn't washed or rested much either. But he said he was clearer in his mind now about what he had to do and how he would be going about doing it. I knew this referred to his role of becoming the promised Messiah. We all knew that was his destiny, and knew that it was only a matter of time before he would leave us to get on with "His Father's Work" as he called it.

 

We spent 5 days on the road, and as I am now in my mid 40's I found the journey quite hard work. I was pleased when we neared the village of Cannan, and the end to our travels for a few days.

 

The next day we had the ceremony which was very moving, and everyone performed perfectly. The bride was beautiful and innocent and the groom was strong and handsome.  I had tears in my eyes when they broke the glasses and sang their responses under the canopy.  Then we all went to the village hall which the bride's family had booked for the reception. There were lots of guests - many hundreds. I think there might have been more than they had anticipated as often, due to the seasonal jobs, people who are invited have to refuse to come. But it looked like the entire town and half the countryside were there to celebrate the day, and all in a very happy frame of mind.

 

We had had our meal, being amongst the honoured guests to be served first, and were about to make room at the table for the next sitting, when Ruth came up to me with a worried look on her face. "Can I see you quietly outside for a word? "she asked me. "Of course" I said, and excused myself from Jesus to see what was upsetting her so. "We have nearly run out of wine," she said, "and half of the guests have not yet been served. We don't have anyone to ask and nowhere to go to buy more. What are we going to do?" she said, and started crying. "Don't worry, lovely Ruth," I said quietly. "Leave this to me."

 

I went outside and found Jesus where he was waiting for me. "I have a special request to ask of you, my son," I said. "They have run out of wine and they are very embarrassed and upset about it."

 

"What's this to do with me?" he asked, somewhat shortly and with a certain amount of annoyance. "My time in not yet come."

"Oh, but I think it has come," I said. And I turned to some servants who were standing nearby. "Do whatever he tells you," I said to them, and pointed Jesus out to them.

 

At first I thought he was going to refuse. I'm sure in his divine plan of things, he hadn't intended to start his public ministry at the whim of his mother and her friends. But he was a good son, and he had to start his work sometime.  He went over to the servants and asked them to fill the 4 large containers which were standing nearby with ordinary water from the well. He spoke with authority and was obviously was a high ranking guest, so they did as they were told, although they obviously wondered what this was all about. When the containers were full of water, he said, "Take them to the chief wine steward." You could see by the looks on their faces that they were very worried by this command, but Jesus smiled at them, and there was such loving kindness in his look, that they were reassured that they would not be getting thrown out for making fools of themselves by offering water to their superior, the wine steward. So they did as they were asked. When they got there and looked down at the contents of the jars, they were amazed that the contents which had started out minutes before as clean pure water, had now changed to the unmistakeable colour of rich red wine.

 

The wine steward tasted a small amount from one cask, and smiled. "What wonderful wine," he said. "Where have you been keeping this? It is the best of the lot."

 

The servants knew they had just witnessed a miracle, but nobody else knew. The wedding feast continued, and all the guests were fed and drank wine to their hearts' content.

When they had finished their duties, the servants together went to Jesus and threw themselves at his feet. "Master," one said," we wish to serve you. Only tell us what to do and we will do it." Jesus, smiled. "I have no more need of you today, but thank you for your trust and confirmation of me. There will come a time in the near future when I will need your support, so be ready and waiting for my call."

 

The next day we started on our return journey home. I thanked Jesus for fulfilling my request, and he smiled and said, "No, thank you Mother, for pushing me into doing it. The first step is always the hardest to make, and now I know that I am firmly on my way to fulfilling my mission."