John 2:1-5: in context

This is the opening of Jesus' first miracle, at a village wedding in Cana, and the passage stops just before the miracle itself, on the small exchange that sets it up. The whole scene turns on a mother, a shortage, and five words.

The trouble looks minor and is not. The wine has run out at the wedding, which for the hosts is a public humiliation, a failure of hospitality the village would remember for years. Mary notices, and she brings it to Jesus in the plainest possible way. They have no wine, she says. That is all. She does not tell him what to do about it or how to fix it. She simply names the lack and leaves it with him. And his answer sounds, on its face, like a refusal: Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Here is the part worth watching. Mary does not argue, does not press her case, does not take offense at what sounds like a no. She turns to the servants and says six words, do whatever he tells you, and steps out of the way.

That is a whole picture of how to carry a need to God. She names it plainly, entrusts it to him without dictating the solution, and then readies everyone around her to obey whatever he says, even though his first response sounded like a decline. Her confidence is not in a guaranteed outcome; it is in him. When I bring a need to God, do I name it and leave it in his hands like this, or do I hand him the fix I have already chosen and give up the moment his first answer sounds like not yet?