In honor of all those getting married this month or celebrating anniversaries, I invite you to imagine meeting a married man in Cana. This story is inspired by John 2:1–11, the wedding at Cana.
We saved some wine from our wedding two years ago because so much was left over. We bring some out every anniversary, as a sign of the blessing it is to be married. Whoever shares it with us agrees: it is the best wine they ever tasted.
People drank freely on our wedding day. We didn’t know we ran out until our chief steward brought the new wine over. I didn’t really know Jesus that well either. Jesus’ dad and my dad were friends, because they both were carpenters. It takes about six hours to walk from Nazareth to Cana, and Joseph would sometimes spend the night at our home. Joseph had passed away by the time Judith and I were betrothed.
Mary gave many of Joseph’s tools to my father after Joseph’s passing. She gave us his favorite hammer as a wedding gift. I could only assume that Jesus was not planning to continue in his father’s profession.
Marriage is more difficult than I ever dreamed it would be. God is blessing our marriage, but the heartaches are many.
My wife miscarried three times before we welcomed our son into the world. I feared I would lose her after his birth, because she was so ill. Fortunately, our wedding anniversary was imminent, and we brought out the wine for our annual toast. Despite her weakness, Judith welcomed our ritual. We told stories from our wedding day. As we emptied our glasses, Judith looked brighter and stronger. Within days she was back to her normal self. Was there something special about that wine? I can’t say. But there was certainly something special about Jesus, and that was obvious based on the miracle at our wedding feast.
He stopped by on our anniversary the first year we were married, along with Philip and Nathaniel. He spent a night with us before moving on. His ministry is causing quite a stir throughout the area. I was glad of the opportunity to offer hospitality. I showed him his dad’s hammer, still a valued part of our woodshop, and he smiled with great love.
While he was with us, he spoke about forgiveness and how critical it is not only in marriage but also in society at large. For a man who’s never been married, he sure understands the effort a good marriage demands. I told him that starting fresh and letting go are keys to success. He smiled and thanked me for my opinions. I felt valued and heard in his presence.
Jesus blessed us before he left and encouraged us to share our love with our family. And to share, of course, the wine.
Image (cropped) by See The Holy Land, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Yes, what beautiful writing to a beautiful miracle. You are a gifted woman, praise God! It is true, sometimes you read from the Bible, and then that’s it. This continuation made me think…and oh the peaceful feeling I have now, after reading it. Thank you!
Thank you, brought tears to my eyes, peace to you
I think of my mom & dad, who if they were still on this earth would be celebrating their 73rd anniversary this month. However, they are now in a place that is not constrained by the element of time.
I am still amazed when I read this story. I think about how Mary must have felt knowing the hour had come for her precious son to begin his ministry and all that she might have been thinking. Especially when He said to her ” my hour has not yet come”. As a mother, I imagine the million words that must have been spoken between the two of them, without a word being said.
This is a nice and wonderful way to connect the Lord Ministry to our everyday Life!
What a beautiful and fertile imagination! Keep up the good work, and thanks for enlightening our Faith Life!
This was an amazingly original work. I totally enjoyed reading it, quite by chance, I might add. God Bless you and thank you for using your talents in such a creative way!
Encontre este blog, muy agradecida. Dios pone en nuestro camino las oportunidades para vivir nuestra espiritualidad. Gracias
You brought new life to the Wedding Feast at Cana. JESUS comment about forgiveness still strikes a cord in our lives today.Blessings on your writings.
Great job Loretta. I always said that you had a special gift from God for writing. I loved your creative and first person approach. Keep up the good work and we look forward to seeing more.
What a wonderful perspective on a Wedding at Cana! Thank you.
Beautifully done my friend! You have an amazing gift for story telling. You could consider a whole series of “bible story sequels”. That would be awesome!
Great story and would love to see more of these kind of what happened after Jesus so touched a person’s or people’s lives. Surely does cause one to think more deeply about the miracle at Cana. Thanks for sharing this story on your website.
Brilliant! What beautiful images! I suspect it really did happen…..
After being married 56 years, reading the story of the groom, it struck me that we have attended many weddings and celebrated many of our own anniversary. But I don’t remember inviting someone outside the family that attended our original wedding to spend the night of at our house, not in a motel. It is definitely something to consider for our next anniversary.
I enjoyed both the beauty of the icon and the beauty of the story.
This was a most unusual posting and I gleaned so much insight as I envisioned Jesus at Cana.
I agree the vocation of marriage holds many blessings. And I would like to toast the author with a glass of the “best wine ever.”
I always wondered if the Wedding Story ends “happily ever after” and this is a wonderful way to bring closure to one of Jesus’ great mysteries but in a way that relates well to our lives. It also reinforces the message that we gain strength from these shared and special experiences.
What a great use of imagination to find God’s message to all of us living the vocation of marriage! thank you!
Amazing how God puts “coincidences” together!
I’m glad this post was a anniversary gift.
God is good!
Today would have been my Mum and Dad’s 68th Wedding anniversary so how appropriate this post is for me today! Mum and Dad were a great example to me of love and faithfulness both to God and each other. Despite their heartaches eg ( sudden death of a son when he was 37 yrs) their faith sustained them and their stoicism makes ( deliberate makes not made) me both proud and humbled by them.