New Wine
“‘No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.’”
Today’s Text: Matthew 9:14-26 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
I’m no wine expert, but I know that as wine matures with age, the different components of the wine sort of “normalize” and “balance out” into a distinctive character. When the wine is young, the various components are all “reacting” to one another and trying to work out their relationship to one another.
Jesus’s statement here reminds me that church is like that too. The various components of the wine are the people. As people get older, they get comfortable in the “wine skin” of spiritual traditions. But those old “wine skins” may not mean that much to the younger folks. They’re still trying to just figure out relationships—their relationships with one another and their relationship with Jesus.
Eventually, the younger ones mature too, and they too may become comfortable in the “wine skin” of spiritual traditions. But they also need time to just figure things out in new “wine skins” too.
In the kingdom of God, the maturing of new wine into old wine takes time and patience. But whatever kind of wine we may be, the ingredient that makes us mature is Christ.
Father, You formed all of us in our mothers’ wombs. You know us inside and out. You also know our lives from beginning to end. You thought of us before we were even born. Make me mature. But may I never stagnate in old wine skins. Always make my heart new in all the things You are doing in this world. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
