No More Mourning

I believe there is a slumbering sense of sadness, a low-grade mourning in our society these days - like a morning fog rolling in unnoticed and settling quietly close to the earth. Some would deny it; some don't feel it; but it's there. Many walk around dressed in disappointment and broken heartedness, wearing weariness and donning the dark clothing of discouragement. And this heaviness, this depression, manifests itself in various ways - some insidiously destructive and others blatantly ruinous. Walk into a grocery store and count the number of smiles you see.

Mourning comes as a result of loss, and the current life we are living in is filled with a series of losses. We all know the familiar cycle of gained and gone, joy and pain. A grandchild is born, and a co-worker passes away. We fit into the groove of a new job and are called into our supervisor's office to find ourselves jobless. We bring home a full bottle of wine in the evening to share with friends, and in the morning, it is gone. Gain and loss. Mourning. But all of this serves to show us that this earthly life is not our home. Heaven is our home.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. ¹

Jesus performed his first miracle - turning water into wine at a wedding feast - shortly before Passover. ² The timing of this miraculous sign was no coincidence. By it, Jesus showed us what he was like and in doing so, showed us what the Father is like. Generous. Caring. Generous (His generosity bears repeating). When God gives, he gives abundantly. He lavishes with a rich flow of "let's overdo this!" By my calculations, the amount of wine Jesus created out of water was no small amount.

6 stone jars: 20 to 30 gallons per jar = 120 to 180 gallons total

1 typical bottle of wine holds .2 gallons per bottle = 5 bottles / gallon

5 bottles X 120 to 180 gallons = 600 to 900 bottles of wine.

Feel free to check my math, but if all has been calculated correctly, that's a lot of wine! At 5 glasses of wine per bottle, that's 3000 to 4500 glasses of wine. But even with such high numbers, we must remember, there is more where that came from. Heaven has no shortages.

Mourning wears many clothes but one of the most uncomfortable and grievous among them is shame. We often experience loss at our own hands. The mirey clay of misjudgment and failure is a terrible place to find yourself. Mourners dwell there. This dark place can feel like a doorless trap, a wet blanket, oppressive and hopeless. But Jesus ...

The miracle of water from wine was called a sign and it points us to what Jesus would accomplish starting at the Passover. The Lamb of God would wipe away our sins and lead us out of this life filled with mourning to the new home he is preparing for us. In that place, there will be no mourning. On the day we reach heaven's portals, loss will be no longer. Mourning may last for this life, but joy will come in the morning. That's what this miracle shows us: who God is and what he would accomplish through his Son.

Heaven's motto could easily be, "the best is yet to come." ³ This is what he holds out you - a place where mourning will cease, where there will no longer be death - of any kind. No more loss, no more pain. He makes all things new.

References

¹ Revelation 21:4

² John 2:1-11, John 2:12-13

³ John 2:10