I turned 38 this year. Yikes.
Someone told me the other day, “You know, getting older is just about perspective. It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Good point.
But I want to be the kind of person who doesn’t get bitter with age. I want to get better.
I want to be wiser and stronger and kinder. I want to be more giving and patient and compassionate.
I want to be slower to anger. Slower to judge. And quicker to listen.
I want what matters the most in life to matter the most in my life.
Faith. Family. Friends.
We all know those people who are “up there” in age—but they have a certain childlike spirit about them. They have a kind of pure joy and peace only found through age. Like my 91 year old Grandma.
They are old. But they are new. As the saying goes, “They are aging like a fine wine.”
Speaking of this tasty libation, Jesus showed up at a wedding in Cana where wine was being served. But there was a problem. The wine ran out.
This would be like running out of pizza at a 7 year old boy’s birthday party. Sort of.
“Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet” (John 2:7).
The master tasted the wine and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink—but you have saved the best till now” (John 2:10).
Jesus doesn’t serve two buck Chuck. He doesn’t serve cheap wine.
But the best wine is aged wine right? How could Jesus make brand new, yet aged wine?
Only Jesus can make something totally new yet it have the maturity and richness that only comes with age.
Remember, when God created the world, He sat back, tasted it, and said, “It is good.”
But in order for something complicated and intricate like Creation to be sustainable and functional, it has to be mature and possess “older” qualities.
Simultaneously, God created something new but aged. Young yet old. Mature yet fresh.
So what’s the point?
You and I are like wine. And not just any wine. But choice wine.
God had each of us in mind from the very beginning of time. In a way, we existed long before we were born. He knit us together so carefully, so prayerfully in our mother’s womb.
We are not accidents. We were made on purpose for a purpose. We were handcrafted wine, not the mass-produced factory stuff.
“We are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
But sometimes we may feel like cheap wine. That though we get older we don’t seem to get better.
And we allow circumstances to cheapen us. To make us feel less than choice. Less than fine.
Like the mother of Jesus, we wonder why God doesn’t do anything. Does He know the wine ran out? Does He care? And He says His time hasn’t come?
It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard to wait and wait and wait…
But God is all about the wait isn’t He? And He knows that the longer the wait, the tastier the wine.
The longer the journey—the sweeter the destination. The harder the grapes are pressed, the more wine is produced.
Waiting time isn’t wasting time.
Good things come to those who wait. Those who trust. Those who believe God is who He says He is. And that He can do the impossible.
What is that one thing you are waiting for? Where is that empty place you are hoping God can fill to the brim? In your waiting, are you becoming bitter or better?
So when we feel cheap, may we see ourselves the way God sees us—as choice wine.
Even as we get older, may we remember that in Christ we are brand new.
May we remember that through adversity God ages us into the best wine.
And may God grow, shape, press, and mature us so that when others taste of our lives they will say, “Mmm, He is good.”