Orange Peels

I don't do this very often; the last time that I shared about a certain event was the day I went to Porters Ski Resort to go snowboarding.
I've started to eat the white out of the orange peels. It's very good for you! it helps digest the actual orange (the stuff we normally eat) God's made this fruit a delectable gold mine of flavour and nutrition. So if you are thinking about eating orange peels next time, think of this post!

How did we get to talking about orange peels? Well, Gabe and Mary have this agreement on, whenever she has an orange, she gives him the peels. So she threw all her orange peels over to him. I did not know why she was doing this, until he started speaking, saying "the orange peels help digest the orange" God has made the fruit this way. As we talked I remembered that as a child I would eat the orange peels. I stopped because no one else ate them. Now I'm going to continue!

It's funny how God uses our circumstances to draw out certain unexpected truths from scripture. For instance, Gabe and I were talking about John 2. We were talking about what would Paul be like, I replied, saying "He'd probably say 'I Imitate Christ'" which got us to talking about Jesus. What kind of a man was Jesus when He was on the earth, what defined his ministry. I was thinking about the sensation Jesus had of coming to earth, being with His bride, when I said "The most joyfully glad man who ever lived" Which is a good place to be! His face glowing with brightness. The crowds drawn to Him. In a way I was also thinking of the book of Esther where it says "the king liberally gave to all of His princes" - out of the generosity of a King. That's the place I want to exist in, penetrated by the glory of His joy and His gladness. I was thinking of how it wasn't the miracles he did, or the words that He spoke, but simply his presence that made people gravitate to Him.

Why did Jesus begin his miracles with a demonstration of turning water into wine? Get rid of the all the religious monotony and "jargon"! I've heard this so often, what the interpretation of this passage is there as many as there are commentators on the passage. We chronicle Jesus performing miracles - healing the sick, driving out demons, performing signs - like feeding the 5000. but none of those was his first sign.

The first sign was turning water into wine. He turned water, into another drink. Why? Okay, so if He was hear this day, what would it be compared to? we're sitting round the table, and Jesus notices we're out of drink and so fills up all the jugs, and then we have more orange juice. He provides us with more drink.

It would be like Jesus, the penultimate expression of joy and gladness to depart from religiousness and delight in us. To love us, to beautify us with his delight. I reckon the question to ask is this: What is the one thing in your field that would be set apart as the most outrageous and never to be forgotten thing - the thing that you would never forget - If you are a backpacker, or if you are a snowboarder, or if you are a global roamer, a missionary, businessman, what kind of miracle, yourself, the thing that would be the pinnacle, what would that be?

I asked Gabe, and He said "when we show up in a town in and we meet a person who takes us in, provides us food, in a night" (words to that effect) So I replied "then that is what He's doing here" - that's what God wants to do. I really don't want to get into the rut of "religious observation" and what "people think this is about" - it just so happened this miracle was the manifestation of His glory, and His disciples believed in Him - that in coming and doing this he was endorsing the marriage, and saying "this is the wine they will have at the marriage feast" - who knows? It may have been the very wine that we will be drinking in the marriage supper.

Gabe also pointed out there is a point Jesus stops drinking in the Gospels, the night before He leaves to goto the cross. That's radical! He's keeping Himself for His bride! This makes everything worthwhile, when God touches me by His Spirit (Song 1:2 - Let Him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth) Orange peels