Hello! Allow me start by acknowledging how these past few weeks have been such a whirlwind! It is insane how quickly time has flown. It’s blowing my mind that in a matter of weeks I will be transitioning from one very distinct season of life to another. I will be home 29 days from today. 29 DAYS!! That is absolutely crazy!
However, as home approaches, I find myself running in circles, growing more and more anxious at the thought of reuniting with my friends and family. I lay awake at night with my jaw clenched, becoming increasingly stressed as I run through possible encounters with people. Now, I know – that is crazy of me to do! Why would I take something so magnificent and allow my thoughts to turn it into something I would rather turn and run away from? Believe me, if I knew, I’d tell you.
But I think it all boils down to this; I understand, if nothing else, that the dynamic of each of the relationships I’m returning to will be different. And that is really intimidating! I have grown in ways unimaginable this year, and I know everyone back home has as well.
(I want to make a point of saying that my growth, although aided by this journey, did not come about solely because of this journey. All that I have learned here God absolutely would have taught me back in sweet ol’ Iowa. I believe that this environment is just the result of my saying YES to something God placed before me).
I find myself unsure of how certain relationships will function with all the change, and through that, I have backed myself into a corner of assumptions and doubt. But sweet Jesus is so faithful to us, and when we carry ourselves somewhere we aren’t sure how to get out of, he will come with the wisdom to pull us from that place.
This morning, he spoke to me SO clearly through a beautiful verse in Matthew. (In all honesty, I believe this is something he has been trying to tell me for weeks now through various songs and people, I just didn’t have the ears to hear it until now – silly me).
“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.”
Matthew 9:17
Now this is a verse I have heard time and time again, and although I’ve always thought it beautiful, I haven’t ever understood the root of its message – that is until this morning.
As home is quickly approaching, I have been trying to bring my old wineskins with me into this new season of life. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe we are meant to cherish our old wineskins – God wants those to be preserved, they’ve been given to us for a reason – they used to carry us. But each time we are pressed and transformed into new wine, he doesn’t desire for us to attempt to use those old wineskins.
Something I’ve seen in the past months are the ways in which I have been pressed; not oppressed, or depressed (I am no longer under the thumb of the enemy), rather just pressed. The pressing is from God, and the pressing is so good. From the pressing comes transformation. From the pressing comes redemption. Restoration. Refinement. From the pressing comes new wine.
And as I have been transformed into new wine, my old wineskins have become inadequate. I’ve been imagining the function of dynamic relationships in old wineskins, but those wineskins can not maintain the function of this new wine. But what is so magnificent is that with the pressing and transformation, we have been given new wineskins. The relationships I find myself fearing will be preserved, if only I leave my old wineskins where they belong and enter this new season dressed in my new wineskins.
Isn’t that so marvelous? God is so sweet to us, it baffles me.
I pray that each of you may be able to shed your old wineskins, and in the refinement you will find your new wineskin.
Blessings upon blessings,
Kendra
