Scripture:
Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and pray frequently. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples are always eating and drinking.”
Jesus replied, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? The days will come when the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.”
Then he told them a parable. “No one tears a patch from a new garment to patch an old garment. Otherwise, the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t match the old garment. Nobody pours new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the new wine would burst the wineskins, the wine would spill, and the wineskins would be ruined. Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins. No one who drinks a well-aged wine wants new wine, but says, ‘The well-aged wine is better.’”
Consider:
Imagine in your head a giant sequoia tree. These massive trees are so big, roads have been cut through the middle of them, wide enough those cars can pass through with room to spare. This giant redwood tree lives hundreds of years, becoming so strong it can withstand almost anything which comes its way.
But it’s size and sturdiness is not the most important or miraculous part of the tree. No. What is the most miraculous about this tree is that at its absolute center—the heartwood—is the original sapling. That sapling is still there, physically present in the middle of the trunk, not transformed or changed, but in it’s original form. The sapling from which the tree grew is preserved forever, right at its heart.
However, as amazing and wonderous as that sapling may be, it existed in a world where a single heavy snowstorm or a hungry deer could have ended its life. It lived in a state of constant survival and shaded future, unable to reach towards the sun nor withstand the winds which shook its roots. It needed to surrounded itself with the protaction and growth of the giant tree in order to survive.
The New Self of the tree is the towering bark and the massive branches that now touch the clouds. The sapling still provides the core and sits at the heart of this wonderous trunk, but it couldn’t possibly support the weight of the massive limbs or the complexity of the ecosystem the tree now sustains. The sapling was designed to survive; the tree is designed to endure.
And so it is with us over time. We are made like this tree with a core which is valued, essential, and true. The core parts of what make us who we are, the person God made us to be, always remains at the center of our identity. But over time, God helps us grow wider, stronger, tougher. God makes it so we are more able, more capable of kindness, caring, and love. The heart of us stays the same, while the rest of us grows more into who God created us to be.
The old version of you cannot contain the new work God is doing. We can’t go back to who we were then because we’ve been structurally changed; the old containers of our lives would literally burst under the weight of current grace. Growth and change are important because they make us more able to rely on and stand strong with God.
Respond:
When was the last time you checked in with your inner sapling? Instead of seeing “failures” or limitations as the end of the story, how could you use God’s creativity to help you find possibilities in this new surrounding?
Pray:
Father God, This way of faith is full of obstacles, and we are often discouraged when we can’t see the Promised Land beyond the next turn. Fill our hearts with your goodness, open our eyes to see, feel and taste your goodness that we may persevere in answering your call. In the name of Jesus we pray.
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