I don’t know how he knows, but my one-month-old son has an unerring instinct for when I am about to eat a meal. Just as I finish setting the table, getting the food on it, and pulling out my chair to sit down, I hear his little voice: “Waaaahhhh!”
Doesn’t matter that he was sleeping soundly. He wakes instantly from that deep sleep I could only wish he’d sleep at night, just in time to put a kink in my mealtime plans.
Interrupted.
I’ve said it to others many times: Jesus knows how you feel. He’s experienced the specifics of many things we experience (except those having to do with personal sin) and the principles behind everything. So I asked myself, Was Jesus ever interrupted?
The answer came before I even finished asking myself the question: of course He was. He got interrupted all the time. There was the time He went to a solitary place to pray and the disciples interrupted Him because everybody was looking for Him. And of course, there were all the times He was trying to teach and got interrupted by people who wanted to start an argument. Then there was His prayer time in the Garden when the interruption came from people ready to crucify Him.
But the event in Jesus’ life I want us to look at today came during a happy time. Festive, even. It happened at a wedding.
Jesus and His disciples had been invited to a wedding in a place called Cana. The fact that Jesus’ disciples were invited also indicates that He was recognized as a rabbi/teacher and was an honored guest. He and the disciples accepted the invitation and traveled there, probably expecting to have a good time mixing and mingling and sharing in the bridal couple’s happiness. But…He got interrupted.
You see, the wine ran out, a fact which, if it became known, would humiliate the bride and groom. Jesus’ mother, knowing this, laid the problem before Jesus: “They have no more wine.” Jesus responded, “What does that have to do with me? It’s not time for Me to take on this kind of role.” Mary, of course, wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Do whatever He tells you,” she said to the servants.
Had He been just an ordinary human being, Jesus could very well have said something like this: “Weren’t you listening? I’ve told you it’s not time for this. Don’t ask again.” (Sound like any response you’ve ever given your kids?) But He didn’t. Instead, He performed a miracle, changing water into wine.
Interrupted. Yet when His Father (through the person of Mary) made known to Jesus that He needed to act, Jesus temporarily stepped aside from the festivities and did what God was calling Him to do. He allowed Himself to be interrupted. And He did it with a good attitude—not with a resentful or irritated spirit.
What about you and me? When we get interrupted by our children, how do we respond? What’s our attitude like?
Granted, there are times we need to teach our children not to interrupt—when someone else is speaking, for example. But there are many times (some days, it seems like millions of times) when they interrupt us with a legitimate need, something we really do need to act upon.
When those times come, we need to take our cue from Jesus and respond the way He did when He was interrupted. Doing so involves three things.
First, we need to be willing to be interrupted when there is a legitimate need and God wants us to act. If we hold onto the idea that our children should never inconvenience us, we’re going to get irritated a lot. And in fact, children are not an inconvenience, if our goal is to serve others rather than to be served.
Second, when we do the right thing, we need to do it with a positive, loving attitude. I admit I’m sometimes guilty of responding to my child’s need but doing so in a way that makes it clear that he or she bothered Mommy by asking. Perhaps you do this too. But instead of showing my children that Mommy is more important than they are, my goal is to show them that I care about their needs because they are important people. The first way of responding makes them feel insignificant; the second makes them feel loved.
Third, we need to serve them well. When we meet a need in a sloppy or mediocre manner, we communicate to our children that their needs don’t matter. When we are about to meet their need, let’s do it abundantly, like Jesus did. After all, He didn’t just make wine, He made wine, delicious and remarkable wine. Next time you make a PBJ, don’t just make a sandwich, make a sandwich. There are plenty of creative ways to do that.
Interruptions will come in life and perhaps especially in motherhood. It’s your choice as to how you respond to them. Your words, actions, and expressions can communicate encouragement and love to your children and at the same time fill you with peace, or they can do the opposite. It’s up to you. You can’t always control when the interruptions come, but you can control how you respond to them.
John 2:7-8—Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” (See John 2:1-12 for the whole story.)