Monday, March 23

Scripture for the Day:    

When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.  Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.  – John 4:43-54

Reflection – Kim Henderson  

I wonder what Jesus would have to do in these troubled times to convince us that he is the son of God.    After all, we have countless who perform miracles every day.  Many of us have witnessed miraculous health recoveries at the hands of skilled medical professionals.  On January 26^th, we had the miracle births of the octuplets and just 10 days earlier, we had the Miracle on the Hudson.  Obama is hard at work on rescuing our economy; that would certainly be a miracle.  We even had the illusionist, Chris Angel, walk on water, another apparent miracle.  What would convince us that Jesus was really Jesus in his second coming? 

He would definitely have his work cut out for him to make us believers.  As he said to the royal official the first time around, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”  I’m afraid that this would undeniably be the case in today’s world.   We are numbed and jaded by all that we have seen and experienced.   Maybe the miracle is for us to find Christ and not the other way around.  In the little things; the day to day wonders that we all take for granted; a soaring hawk, the quiet sparkle of freshly fallen snow, the kindness of a stranger.  Perhaps Christ is already among us and all we have to do is take notice; stand witness to his grace.