imagine iff... part 3

Matthew 9:17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Jesus' third and final illustration of how spirituality is expressed differently in His Kingdom than the kingdom of this world is given by way of something we are not as culturally familiar with. In that day wine was put into specially-treated skins stitched together and sealed. What we can relate to is how skins, leather, can become hard and brittle over time, especially when it has become wet. That is a problem when new wine, still fermenting, is put in them. The old skins and stitching cannot take the pressure of the process. Change is difficult. Tradition can really be stressed when God calls us to a new way of thinking and doing. That's what Christ does - He calls us to change the way we view ourselves, others, and God. May our hearts not be those of hardened leather.