Imagine you are at a birthday party and, when the moment comes to bring out the birthday cake, it is found, splattered over the floor, with the dog helping itself to the pieces. Disaster! After sharing the news with a few people, you walk into the kitchen to discover the largest, most splendid birthday cake you ever saw. The candles are lit, and duly blown out. And, as everyone tucks into their slice, there is universal agreement that the cake tastes just as amazing as it looked. But no-one knows where it came from. All the caterers can say is that one of the guests told them to look in a back room, and there it was, ready and waiting.
That - more or less - is what Jesus did at the wedding party in Cana.
There are two things to note: firstly that Jesus solved the crisis with remarkable quality and quantity (he produced a lot of very good wine); secondly, he did it very discreetly (only the servants knew what had happened). That was Jesus’ style, how he usually did things. And that, therefore, is God’s style. God does amazing things but does them amazingly discreetly. The Christmas story carries the same hallmark.
People of faith often like to make a big splash of God’s behalf. If God does something, they want everyone to know. But that isn’t God’s style. Jesus did God’s work without any fanfares, and only the servants knew. That - it seems - is how God tends to do things.
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