January 11 - New Wine

January 11 – New Wine

“Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17)

I’ve always preferred restoring old things to purchasing new.  I remember a friend many years ago who was always changing out her furniture. She and I were close friends and lived in the same community for about five years, but in those five years she purchased three different living room sets. 

At the same time, I was taking antique pieces in to have them stripped and refinished.  I couldn’t imagine simply getting rid of them because I was tired of the way things looked in my house.

When I think about all of the ‘stuff’ that I have managed to acquire over the years, it really isn’t about the fact that I’ve purchased a bunch of new stuff, it has more to do with the fact that I have somehow saved things from my grandparents homes and as it ended up, two separate households from my parents, as well as my husband’s family and things that he and I managed to acquire before we got married.  A lot of old stuff – and because these things hold memories, I keep using the old and do my best not to replace them with a lot of new.

Jesus, however, came into the world to bring new life and what was happening was that people were trying to layer His teachings over their old lives.  It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now.  He came to make all things new.  He doesn’t want us to go out and get new lives, but He does want us to allow Him to completely make our lives over so that when He fills us, we don’t bust apart.

A lot of us try to make Jesus fit into our traditions, into our church traditions, into our family traditions.  We try to make Him fit into what we are comfortable with, thinking that He is going to do things that seem safe and normal to us.

The reality of Jesus is that He will make our lives new … completely new, so that when He fills us up and asks us to pour ourselves out, we can do so without falling apart.  That old wineskin will burst if He were to allow us to fill it with fresh, new wine.  Only by allowing Him to lead us into change – into a new life – can we be filled to overflowing with His love.