Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 The city of Nazareth is located in a region of northern Israel called Galilee. You might have heard of the Sea of Galilee in Sunday school. It's where, 2,000 years ago, Jesus walked on the water, calmed a storm, and fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Today, Galilee has a population of more than a million people and is home to dozens of museums. Because Dr. Gomez and Michael knew that a collector of ancient artifacts was after Merle and Pearl, museums seemed like a logical place to

look. And since they'd hit a dead end with the curator of the area's largest museum, they kept looking... and looking... and looking. "This is impossible!" Michael groaned in the passenger seat after hours of driving and 10 museum visits with no leads. "We're never going to find them!" "Impossible? Hmm. Let me show you something," Dr. Gomez said cheerfully as he pulled the car over on the narrow street. "Is this a teachable moment?" Michael asked, familiar with the tone of his dad's voice. As a professor and a father, Dr. Gomez was always on the lookout for teachable moments. "You might say that." Dr. Gomez smiled. At the time, the two were just north of Nazareth in a little town called Cana. After exiting the car, they walked up to the entrance of a beautiful little church. Compared to the huge Basilica of the Annunciation, this was more like a chapel. "Welcome to the Wedding Church!" Dr. Gomez announced.

"It's nice," Michael said. "You think this is where Merle and Pearl got married?" "To tell you the truth, I have no idea how that works with squirrels," his dad admitted. "No, this is the site of Jesus' very first miracle, where he turned water into wine." Dr. Gomez went on to describe the story, found in the Gospel of John, when Jesus and his disciples attended a wedding in Cana on this very site. "It was traditional to serve wine at wedding celebrations."

As they entered the chapel, Michael noted paintings depicting the story lining the walls. His dad continued, "Jesus' mother, Mary, came to him and told him the hosts had run out of wine. Jesus then asked some servants to fill a few stone containers with water, which they did. When the servants poured it back out, it wasn't water anymore— it was wine." "How is that possible?" Michael asked. "Exactly!" Dr. Gomez answered. "God can make possible what we think is impossible."

Michael nodded and sat down in a pew. In the stillness and quiet of the chapel, he felt like finding Merle and Pearl might take a miracle. He bowed his head and asked God to make it possible.