You’ve heard about the wedding at Cana when Jesus changed the water into wine. Well, the Lord did another marvel at the wedding festivities of Mike and Mary Ann Halloran’s daughter, Rebekah, last year when she married David Cook.
The night before the wedding we had a rehearsal dinner. It was a buffet-style meal with grilled burgers, potato salad, and other sides. Mary Ann asked Ceci to make her special chili con queso, a cheesy dip to pour over tortilla chips. “She asked me to prepare enough for about 35 people,” Ceci said, “so I made it in a medium-sized crockpot.”
The guests began to arrive and eat. Then more cars drove up and more people entered the party. “I quickly checked the refrigerator to see if I had more cheese,” Ceci told me. “I found a partial brick so added that to the crockpot along with some milk. But as more guests arrived, I knew we would run out. It just wasn’t enough for the more than 60 people who had come.”
Mary Ann added, “Seeing the long line at the food table I, too, knew we would run out. Everyone was invited, but more people showed up than I figured would come. As they kept trickling in, I thought to myself, ‘We will not have enough chili con queso for all our guests,’ as it’s a very popular item around here. The crockpot was normal size and about ¾ full.”
Person after person ladled the hot, melted cheese sauce over their chips, and some even went back for seconds. More than double the number of people were served than the dish was prepared for. “I thought that the first batch of guests would get some, then it would be gone,” Mary Ann shared. “But it lasted the whole time! And it wasn’t because people didn’t take it or held back. Anyone who wanted some helped themselves to it and poured it on generously!” Ceci chimed in, “We even had leftover, so I offered it to the priest to take home, which he did.”
Instead of the miracle of the wine, we had the miracle of the cheese.