Jump Start # 1221

John 2:6 “Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, ‘fill the water pots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.”

  Wine, fish and bread. I always knew those stories but just recently saw a connection that illustrates a great principle about God. Let’s start with the wine.

It was a wedding at Cana. I know about weddings. I go to a lot of them. Just had one in our family a couple of weeks ago. There’s always that great concern that the amount of food and the number of guest balancing out just right. Enough cake for everyone. At the account in the Bible, they ran out of wine. A major embarrassment to the parents of the couple getting married. Mary, Jesus’ mother, asks Him to do something. Maybe she knew. This was His first miracle so she didn’t have a record of other times. He orders the water pots filled with water. Thirty gallons of water. He changes the water to wine. Thirty gallons of wine, today’s typical bottle of wine is 25 ounces, which means around twelve cases of wine or 153 bottles or 765 glasses of wine.  That is a lot of wine.

Now the fish. Peter had been fishing all night. Caught nothing. Now he was cleaning his nets. Jesus told them to go back out. Peter and others obeyed. They cast their nets as Jesus said. They immediately caught so many fish that the nets began to tear. They filled two boats with fish. There were so many fish that the boats started to sink. This was the catch of a lifetime. No one had ever caught this many fish at one time. That was a lot of fish.

Now the bread. It was getting late in the day. A great crowd had followed Jesus. There was teachings and healings. Jesus told the apostles to feed the crowd. They didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t enough money and no place to supply that amount of food. Matthew’s Gospels reveals that there were 5,000 men not counting women and children. Easily 10,000-15,000 in the audience. Simon finds the snack of a poor boy, dried fish and a few barley wafers. Jesus prays. The food is multiplied. The Gospels tell us that the crowd was filled. They didn’t just take a bite to get them through. They ate until they were no longer hungry. Then we are told that they gathered up the left overs. Twelve baskets full. Interesting, twelve apostles and now twelve baskets—the baskets were full. There was an abundance of food. That’s a lot of bread.

Wine, fish and bread. Three different stories, taking place at different locations and at different times in the ministry of Jesus, but all equally showing the abundance and generosity of Heaven. When God gives, it’s not just a little bit, He pours out the blessings. God is not stingy. God is not a tightwad. He doesn’t hold out until we are begging and crying. What a generous God.

Doesn’t God do the same for you and I? Not just a little blessing here and there, but great blessings, enormous blessings.

• The blessings of fellowship—not just in our congregation, but world wide. What a great family the people of God are.

• The blessings of forgiveness—not just a little forgiving, or partial forgiving, but “as far as the east is from the west” as Psalms tells us, this is how far He has removed our sins. Gone. Forgotten.

• The blessings of prayer—any time, any place, our hearts can talk to Him. No waiting our turn. No He’s unavailable right now. No come back later. What a great blessing.

• The blessing of Heaven. Invited not for a quick peek. Not just shown pictures. Not given a brief tour. But His home becomes our home. Forever. Eternal. Never to leave again. What a great blessing.

• The blessing of seeing God’s face. Together with God. What a great blessing.

God sure is good. You’d think that the people of God ought to be the same way. Sometimes we’re not. We can be stingy, withholding, withdrawn and refusing to be there for others. We can have a hard time forgiving others. God doesn’t. We can be slow to accept new people. God doesn’t. We can tight with helping others. Not God. He’s generous.

We ought to see some things about God here. We ought to see some things about ourselves as well.

God is good. He is good to me.

Roger