Unbridled Independence

“When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine” (John 2:3).

My family gathered to celebrate the September-born members which include me. There was the customary Jamaican food, alcohol, laughter, teasing, and jiving. Three friends of my eldest niece, who were visiting from St. Maarten, joined briefly on their way to the airport. While saying their goodbyes, my mother quietly approached me and whispered, “Let’s pray for them for safe travel.” There was a lightning-speed feeling of reluctance and resistance to the request, accompanied by a fleeting thought, “Why is it necessary?”  Both emotional fugitives, however, were arrested and contained by the police of awareness, and obedience followed a mother’s entreaty.

Unbridled independence is a virus travelling freely through the veins of our being. Unconsciously and consciously, it shapes our interactions and our decisions. We snub at the aid of others or fail to ask for help. The virus infection makes us remark, “I can do this on my own. I don’t need your helping hand.”  We only abandon it whenever it suits us, or when we are flat on our face. And even then, some prefer to die flat on their face rather than ask for help.  I am aware of the existence of this virus within me especially when my mother offers to assist with some matters.  Without thought, the virus manifests itself in my feelings of resistance and annoyance, and my thoughts saying, “But Mom, I can do that myself. Why bother yourself!”

I wonder, “Were these the feelings and thoughts of Jesus at the wedding at Cana in Galilee when He responded to His mother that His hour had not yet come”?  Whether or not, it was the vaccine of the Spirit and His intimacy with his mother that counteracted the virus of unbridled independence.