“And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” (Luke 5:36-37 KJV)
Old wine skins? Old in the sense of old teachers containing new converts? Perhaps. How about the way we would like to see things transformed verses how God actually transforms them? Would that be different enough to cause a patch to pull away from the rest of the skin? Would it be enough to cause us to burst thus leaking our contents all over the floor?
We want the wine. We want to be able to contain it so that it may be distributed. We want to be able to age it and mature it. Are any of these actually bad desires? Yet our patches never seem to get the job done. We must allow God to completely remake. To design the entire picture from blue print on. To really make new wine skins. When He begins to fill us, and let us transport and distribute his creation, and to give people just a taste of what He can turn mere water into then we begin to realize how our patching is so much less than His complete formation.
The sad part is that we drink the old saying that it is better never knowing the wonders that God can do if given the trust, belief, and willingness to allow a new heart to grow and attach it to His vine rather than trying to grow our own vine.
“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5 KJV)