Springtime—and fresh air. Sunshine is bright after gray winter skies evaporate into warm clarity. Deer dash across fairways having peeked from nearby forests. Children laugh on playgrounds once more. Sprouts abound, and birds chirp merrily with songs of anticipation.
Everything is new.
In Matthew 9:17 Jesus said that “Men do not put new wine into old wineskins; else the wineskins break, and the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish; but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” This wisdom came as He responded to the disciples of John who asked Him “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” How could old religion constrain new life? A baby is not born a grandpa.
There was a new era breaking forth. The Kingdom of Heaven, promised of old, was now within reach.
The new wine of the Kingdom that Jesus announced has steeped in many skins of churches and movements. God has been involved in the process all along. The wine is still new, for it is eternal. But the skins are giving way to a skin-of-skins that matches the wine—the way of the Master. There is a new old skin. A first century genesis of old made fresh in our 21st century understanding.
A winter has passed. A spring is budding. The world is aging, but the Kingdom is rising. There are signs of His life everywhere. Prophecy is coming to pass in our time.
And I find myself chirping.
