FIRST STEP TO A FINAL DESTINATION
Do you ever feel like you’re
being pushed into something that’s bigger than you’re ready for? This week I
realized I had four of those hit me pretty much all at once. 1. God told me to
start organizing an art show for my friends, 2. I was asked to design an arm-length
crucifixion tattoo for another friend, (something I never even considered
before), 3. A new classier place opened up for me to do my writing, and 4. I
was given a free lifetime membership to a world-renown gun club! Every one of
these is a little daunting and frankly quite humbling, and I’m not so sure I’m
ready for all this. But I’m going ahead on all of them anyway. There’s always a
first step to a final destination, even if we don’t know what the destination
is yet.
None of these were on my “to
do” list for 2021, but when God pushes, you can’t say no. And did you know that
Jesus faced the same thing? John 1 and 2 tell us the story.
Jesus had just been baptized
by John the Baptist, marking the beginning of his ministry. John said of him: “ This is he of whom I said, ‘After me cometh a man
which is preferred before me’. . . And John bare record, saying, ‘I saw
the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. . . And
I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God’” (John 1:30, 32, 34).
John the Baptist prepared
the people for the coming of Christ, and when John baptized Jesus, he told his
followers to start following Jesus. They did, and they got others to follow him
too, and Jesus began to teach them.
“And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;
and the mother of Jesus was there” (John 2:1).
So what did Jesus’ mother do? She invited Jesus and his new
disciples to the wedding. When they got there, they wanted to join the
celebration, and they wanted a glass of wine.
“And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto
him, ‘They have no wine’” (v. 3). They all knew that Jesus had been proclaimed
as the Christ, the promised one who would save the world, and mom was no exception.
She expected her son to find a solution to the wine problem and she pushed him.
But, like
us, Jesus wasn’t so happy about being pushed. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus
went through every thought and emotion we go through, and that includes being
annoyed when we feel pushed to do something we may not feel we’re ready for!
So Jesus
basically told mom to back off. “Jesus saith unto her, ‘Woman, what have I to
do with thee? mine hour is not yet come’” (v. 4). He was saying something
like, “Hold on a doggone minute! I just got baptized the other day, or did you
forget? I’m not quite ready for this stuff yet!” But his mother knew who he
was, and she trusted whatever decision he would make.
“His
mother saith unto the servants, ‘Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it’” (v.
5). Jesus’ mother was wise—she
was a thinker. When it came to her son, she absolutely knew what God said about
who her child was going to be. Remember in Luke 2 when Jesus was born and the
shepherds came and corroborated what the angel had told Mary about birthing the
Messiah, “Christ the Lord”.
“And all they that heard it wondered at those things
which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and
pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:18-19).
So when Jesus was baptized into his ministry, she gave him a
little shove, but left the decision totally up to him. And what did he do? He tapped
into the spirit of God within him and took the first step, and immediately he
was on the fast track to his destiny. Jesus did his first public miracle and made
water into wine and it was the best wine they ever tasted!
When we feel like we’re being pushed a little too hard or a
little too fast into something we feel we may not be ready for, if we’re pretty
sure it’s of God, let’s not fight it, but just say “Okay, let’s do this”.
Afterall, we only have to take one step at a time and Jesus is always there,
and our guardian angels too, to help and guide us to our final destinations. No
matter how old or young you are, it’s a great journey!
Love, Carolyn
Good life lessons from the Bible:
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