“I need a miracle.” You know, effect without effort – it’s a miracle! Truth be told, miracles require great effort by the affected before the effect takes place.

Water to wine. When Mary called upon Jesus to step into the spotlight by performing his first miracle at the wedding at Cana, the stage was set for the reality and the misperceptions of miracles. She told the staff to do whatever her son asked of them. As we know, Jesus turned water into wine of such high quality that the steward commented that usually the best wine is not served last.

Since the servants did not have a water faucet from which to get the water that would be turned into fine wine, they had to likely go into the center of town to draw water from the well, one bucket at a time. Did they also need to wait in line as the well served the entire village?  Likely so. The group headed from the banquet hall to the town well. According to John’s Gospel, there were six containers to be filled, each capable of holding 20-30 gallons. A clay jug of that size had to be pretty heavy to begin with.  Each gallon would weigh about eight pounds, so each jug would be 160-240 pounds apiece, before counting the weight of the jug. People were much smaller 2000 years ago then now, too. Can you imagine the grumbling among the water carriers? 

Water to wine! Voila! Nothing to it!  It’s a miracle!  They had no idea what was coming. Miracles are that way.

Walk on water.  Heal the blind. Feed the masses. There are plenty of examples of miracles in the Bible. All of them required work, toil and effort of some sort before miraculous results. An examination of miracles from those days forward will also reveal that miracles are not pushed upon passive awaiters-of-change, but are part of complicated processes of action, toil, sacrifice and effort.

Maybe we do need miracles in that for them to happen one must put in action and effort first. Since Genesis, we have been called to non-passivity.