“Then & Now” by Rev Robin Gilbert
And he gave them this illustration: “No one rips up a new garment to make patches for an old, worn-out one. If you tear up the new to make a patch for the old, it will not match the old garment. And who pours new wine into an old wineskin? If someone did, the old wineskin would burst and the new wine would be lost. New wine must always be poured into new wineskins.
~ Luke 5:36-38 The Passion Translation (TPT)
I am in the 6th month of my brand-new marriage! It looks good on paper, it feels great in my heart and it is really crowded in our little house! Years ago, my now adult children, informed me that I was a knick-knack hoarder. I laughed with them, denied the charges but in my heart, I felt alone. I felt as if no one understood how much the items in my house meant to me, I have knick-knacks that were given to me by my siblings, family members, students, mentees, girl scouts, friends, church members, neighbors, even strangers. I have knick-knacks that were given to me by my children when they were 5 years old. I have knick-knacks that were given to me by my now adult nieces and nephews when they were in elementary school. I have a pair of earrings that were given to me by my son when he was in 3rd grade and although his son is now in elementary school, I still would periodically take out the 4-inch-long, HUGE, white as snow, plastic earrings that are in the shape of an uppercase R and shed a few motherly tears.
In short…I am a knick-knack hoarder!
A few weeks ago, after spending hours moving knick-knacks an inch or two this way…an inch or two that way with a concentrated effort I managed to get one of my husband’s football trophies on the bookcase shelf in the living room. Proud as a peacock, I sat on the couch with a grin as wide as California and looked at the trophy now displayed with my knick-knacks. It looked large, cumbersome and out of place. My eyebrows furrowed in a pensive arch and I felt tears welling up and spilling over, and I remember saying out loud…“I wonder if Isaiah feels as out of place as his football trophy looks?” My heart was heavy. As I looked around the house, there was no Isaiah. On every bookcase, every shelf, every wall, every countertop, I was allowing my yesterdays to use up all of my todays.
I thought back to our marriage counseling, I thought back to our vows, I thought back to the promises we made each other about starting new and I realized that I had invited Isaiah into my life and I was expecting him to move in with my old memories, and my old past.
“No one rips up a new garment to make patches for an old, worn-out one. If you tear up the new to make a patch for the old, it will not match the old garment.”
After a week of shifting, moving and rearranging I began to give away, throw away and pack-up the knick-knacks, it was painful. I relived good memories, I relived bad memories, I relived mistakes, I relived pain…I relived 55 years of my life. I cried. I laughed. I prayed. I daydreamed. I wondered, “What if…” I even removed the old black bookcases, I had owned for 20 years.
Isaiah came home from work and he had a concerned, puzzled look on his face. He asked if I had placed all of the bookshelves on the curb and if so why? I replied with a yes and began to cry like a baby! I apologized for not making complete room for him in my heart and life.
“And who pours new wine into an old wineskin? If someone did, the old wineskin would burst and the new wine would be lost.”
After a long talk, we decided to redo the living room as a couple.
The new living room is fantastic! There is a mixture of each of our likings and our personalities as individuals and as a couple.
When we as Christians, give our problems and concerns to God, we are asking Him to help us start new, help us begin again. Because of his love for us, God will pick us up, and place us in a new situation or circumstance. As humans, we tend to think back on what we were, what we use to do, how we use to behave and feel as if we are not worthy of God’s blessing, but God has forgiven us and has placed us in the position to shed the old garments and empty the old wine.
God’s love covers us with new garments daily. We do not have to patch up our lives because our lives are new in God! We don’t have to pretend by putting old wine in new wineskins because God’s forgiveness is honest, real and new every day!
You can not start a new chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the old one.
“New wine must always be poured into new wineskins.”
May God bless and keep you and may you accept all the New God has for YOU!
About the Author ~ Rev Robin Gilbert
Robin is a former Pastor and an ordained minister and a native of Denver, Colorado, who made Huntsville her home in 1982. Robin and her husband, Minister Isaiah Gilbert conduct Real Life Bible Studies through their ministry Our Church Without Walls. She is the founder of the Alabama Christian Business Association, a faith-based nonprofit organization that aids in the startup and connection of Christian owned businesses, and she has authored and published numerous books among which are Dear God…It’s Me – A Meditation Journal, The Ministers Resource Book, and What is…Asked Javien, a Christian children’s book collection.
Robin is a proud mother of four adult children, a mother-in-law and a grandmother of five, which she thanks God for each and every day. A powerful, dynamic, speaker Robin uses the gifts of the Spirit to speak from her heart and soul with a genuine love for whom God made her and for what she does. When asked how and/or why she does all that she does, she simply replies…I Am The Lord’s.
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