This weekend, William and I went on a wine making adventure. We took a drive to Ontario, New York where someone I know has a house settled by the lake with acres of delicious concord grapes.
This was super exciting for four reasons:
- Adventuring with William is one of my favorite things to do. Along with working as a team.
- I have wanted to get out and do an exciting fall adventure.
- Making wine has been on our project list and we were finally starting it!
- The grapes were FREE (thank you, Jesus!)
With all of that said, it was a really great day. Lots of outside, lots of picking, lots of laughs, and lots of indoor wine making steps ending with this beauty below (that we now affectionately refer to as our 'baby')...
So we waited with excitement, anxiously anticipating our BUBBLES. These bubbles would indicate that all of our hard work paid off and the fermentation started. We waited, we checked up on it, we walked by it over and over again....
And for the first day, our wine did not bubble AT ALL.
As the wine sat there not doing what it was suppose to do Will and I talked about how even if this first batch botches, we are determined to try again. I think this is primarily because we are stubborn and will work at something until it's how we want it but ...
It's also because we have an investment in this now.
We don't want to waste the money (and the time) that we have put into it.
Sitting in church yesterday God spoke to me and I realized,
God has an enormous investment in US.
Bigger than money.
Bigger than carboys and tablets and time spent mushing up grapes (and feeling like fiber glass was all over our arms afterwards!)
He invested
His only Son.
So that we could exchange our sin for His glory.
"
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Romans 13:14
This 'rather' speaks to me about exchanging one thing for something better. And we couldn't have had this exchange if not for His investment. We would be still in our 'filthy rags', unable to take them off, unable to find anything new to put on, unable unable unable.
Back to investments. Someone with an investment doesn't just give up when there's trouble or it doesn't go smoothly.
Our wine wasn't bubbling right away but I kept checking. I must have walked over there a million times and looked at that carboy filled with juice and grape skins not doing what I wanted it to do. What it
should be doing.
How much more does God think about us? Work with us? Chase us? Redeem us? Cover over us with the blood of His son?
In Zechariah 3:2 it's put this way, "Is not this man a burning stick snatch from the fire?".
He is passionate about us. He would stick His hand in hot coals to grab us from our mess. He has loved us with an everlasting love. For goodness sake, the entire old testament is a story about a God so in love with His people that He forgives over and over just crying out, "If only you'd turn away from those things and repent". Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. But His pursuit never ended.
Do we think that because we fall and fail and continually strive but not meet this level of holiness we so desire...that He just gives up?
He doesn't.
His desire is that we would be saved, and then be used.
"In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" Ephesians 2:21-22
God's been working on my house for several years now. He demolished it, rebuilt the foundation, threw out the junk, reworked the electric, and as of recently did the nice stuff...painted, decorated, etc. And now...He wants me to do what this has all been for...be His house, created to do good works.
He didn't save me just so I could sit in my metaphoric house enjoying my nicely painted walls.
He did it so that I would want:
To seek out the broken.
To minister to the hurting.
To lead by example.
To snatch others from the grip of the enemy.
To speak truth in love.
To demolish all arguments that set themselves up against the truth of God.
And to help others let God rebuild their house. To tell of what can be done.
To stand as a testament to His power and purpose.
But, remember, Romans 2:8 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves". Your quest for holiness, for keeping your House a place where He can dwell and use you...will never be met and maintained on your own power. You didn't know your house was a mess, you didn't know it needed to be rebuilt, you didn't know where or how to start, and you certainly won't be able to do this....without Him.
So press in.
And when you fail or accusations come from the enemy against you (sometimes pointing to very true things in your life) remember two things:
- You are, in fact, a mess. And need Him. Sometimes what the enemy is saying IS true. But...
- God does not give up on His investment. And He wouldn't invest in something that He didn't KNOW would come together in the end.
So let God work out His investment in You.
Someday you might just start bubbling...
xoxo,
mp
