As far as it goes

  

     Christians have a way of throwing around words. We talk as if we have all the faith in the world and yet at the same time we live as if we have so little faith.  The disciples were asked over and over by Jesus,” have you so little faith.” Their words said that they had faith but their actions told another story. 

     We all know the story, at the wedding at Cana (John 2) the hosts of the wedding miscalculated the amount of wine needed for the week long celebration. In the Middle Eastern world, this was a slip that there was no recovering from. They had breached the rules of hospitality. As long as they had guests, they were under the obligation to care for them and that included having enough wine to last through out the festivities. This newlywed couple faced certain ridicule and years of stories told about their lapse of hospitality.

    Mary stepped in to help out the couple. Mary asked Jesus for help, and though it was not the appointed time for his ministry he turned the washing water into the best wine that ever existed. Although the miracle at Cana is important to Christians showing  the compassion that the Lord has for humans there are five little words that point to heart of  our faith.

     “What ever he says, do. “ Mary’s instructions to the waiters showed the great faith that she had in her son. How many Christians have this kind of faith in our risen Lord?  We read the words of God picking the things that we are going to follow. These things we can trust Jesus with, but these things we can’t.  Faith has to be an absolute. Faith is not something that we choose to exercise or not. Choose to switch on or off.

     The same words spoken to the disciples can be said to us as well,” Do you have so little faith“.  We feel lonely because we do not have faith that God will “never leave us or forsake us.”(Hebrews 13:5)  We fear that we will not have enough food or fear that we will not have enough to cover all of our bills because we do not believe that “He will provide all our needs according to his riches.” (Philippians 4:19) We fear that we will lose our salvation even though He has said that “those who come to him he will by no means turn away.” (John 6:37)

      Sometimes it is hard to have faith. We go through things that shake us to the core of our beliefs, but we are still called to have the faith of a child. A child trusts absolutely. Children trust that everything will be alright, that their parents will provide everything that they need materially as well as emotionally. We have to trust that God has our best interest at heart and that even in the storms of life he has us. Faith is a muscle that has to be developed; the more we exercise our faith the stronger it gets, but we have to remember what Mary said,” Whatever he says, do.”