Signs and Wonders

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.
So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. John 4:43-54

Last night my daughter Ariel and her husband Adam went for a walk on the beach and a late night swim. As they swam they were surrounded by luminescent plankton. Shimmering and lighting up on contact, the magic and wonder was new to Adam. At the beginning of his 30th birthday, he was delighted by new wonders, delighted by the amazing spectacle of the natural world he had never experienced before.

The official from Capernaum was terrified for his child's life. He asked Jesus to come and make him well since he knew he had done amazing things before. Jesus promises that his child is well, and his faith moved his feet homeward, full of hope and wonder. A father, aching for his child became a child again, full of hope and wonder and delight with life. Faith gives us the possibility of new life, new signs and wonder, trusting God to delight and renew us.

Today, I ask God to help me walk by faith, with feet that are inspired again by hope and wonder. The delights of the love that surrounds us, our family, our daughters and grand daughter and all the love we have among us, is a continuing source of delight and wonder. May our eyes be open to the amazing gifts that surround us, the love that renews us and the faith that reanimates even the most weary and down trodden. May our faith be bold and may we run forward with hope and expectation, trusting God to provide new joys and wonders as we serve others.