Monday January 20th: Open to Possibilities

“No! New wine into fresh wineskins!”

Mark 2:18-22

Referring to a custom at that time, Jesus tells his listeners when new wine is put into old wineskins that are inflexible and brittle the result is disastrous. The wine, because it has no room to ferment and expand, cannot be contained and so the wine bursts the skins and all is destroyed.
Similarly, when our students, our children and even our co-workers introduce new ideas or new ways of doing things, and we are rigid and inflexible in our attitude towards change, like the old, used wineskins we run the risk of destroying not only the new wine but the old wineskins also. This is because we have not provided them with the room to grow and explore exciting new avenues.
It is possible for everyone to grow and blossom like new wine. However, by putting ourselves, the new wine, into used wineskins, accepting the ‘same ole same’ we lose the opportunity to expand and transform ourselves. The challenge, then, lies in the words: “New wine into fresh wineskins!”