When you live with someone you come to know them quite well. In day-to-day life you experience their character, integrity, and capacity. This knowledge shapes your perspective and trust.
In Sunday school this fall one of our classes will focus on Jesus' encounters with people in the gospels through the practice of Lectio Divina. For our first passage of Scripture we focused on the wedding in Cana in John 2 where Jesus performs his first miracle. Jesus, his first followers, and his family were present. When Jesus' mother realized that the host had run out of wine she made the need known to Jesus. And then she tells the servants, "Do whatever he tells you to do."
I expect that Mary knew Jesus better than any other person at that time. After all, they had been together 30 years. She knew who he was and that any instruction he gave would have good and beneficial results. She trusted him.
Mary's exhortation has echoed in my heart. I can feel Mary's confidence in Jesus. What do you hear when you hear those words whispered to your soul? "Do whatever Jesus tells you to do." For me, sometimes that exhortation means pausing to ask and then listen for instruction. It can also require me to push through my own resistance, hesitance, doubt, or fear in order to say, "Yes!" to God and move forward in trust.
The servants complied with Mary's admonition and followed Jesus' instruction. They invested in obedience, and they filled those huge jugs with water.
Then the second directive, perhaps more threatening than the first, Jesus tells them to offer the "water" to the master of ceremonies. The risk increases and the tension builds. Would their faith be revealed as foolish or wise? As the master of ceremonies tastes the "water" Mary's faith in Jesus is proven worthy. The water had been transformed into wine, and Jesus' glory is displayed.
What is Jesus asking of me today?