Rigth on Time - July 28, 2010

Good Wednesday morning! I'm late getting back from my walk this morning, and that makes the devotional late, and that.... but who cares! It's not like I have a bunch of appointments today. You can be a little proud of me today; I rucked up my God-given courage and entered 6 photos into the fair yesterday. Actually, as with all things I get anxious about, the entry process wasn't at all bad. Of course, God led me to this great picture today, I guess I'll have to just enter it next year. If you take the Deadwood Trail to the hill that descends under the railroad crossing, this fox was just at the top.

This morning we come to a verse that might cause anyone to pause. Did Jesus tell his mother to get stuffed? Did he say, "That isn't my job, mother"?

"Dear woman, that's not our problem," Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." (John 2:4)

It certainly would seem that he did just that, but perhaps we need to look more closely. The first statement is nothing less than the truth. As an invited guest, supplying the wine certainly wasn't Jesus' problem. But he also said "our problem"; did that mean his and Mary's problem, or did he mean to imply the Trinity in 'our'? We know from other references in the Gospels that Jesus often spoke for the Father, the Holy Spirit, and himself. He might also have meant that Mary, his mother, should not have been worried about this problem. Possibly he meant both. One of the most important statements is the second one, "My time has not yet come." We know from the scriptures that Jesus did everything right on time, never too soon and certainly not too late. All that Jesus did to prove his claim to be the Messiah and all that he did on our behalf was done exactly at the time set by God. How many times have you tried to catch up after starting out the day late?

Jesus never had to run to catch up and he never arrived late for any meeting or task. That is amazing, but even more than that, Jesus didn't arrive early either. If you opened your shop at 0800, you would never have worried to find Jesus sitting outside waiting, staring in the door, putting pressure on you to open early and start the workday before that first cup of coffee. We know that it is rude to arrive late to appointment, but we often don't think that arriving early can be made rude too by the way we act. So just when would Jesus' time come in this case? We'll find out in the next couple of days!

Have a great and wonderful day with Abba, the Father in Heaven!

Bucky