By Sandy Jones
“God is faithful. He is also endlessly creative. Every generation must decide whether it will become a new wineskin — flexible, Spirit-filled, responsive — or insist on old wineskins that can no longer hold what God is pouring out.” (Quoted from an article written by Joe McKeever, churchleaders.com)
Doom scrolling on social media one Sunday evening, I came across an article that intrigued me titled, Why Small Churches Stay Small — And What Finally Breaks the Pattern. The author, obviously a seasoned pastor, made many great points on church leadership, but the paragraph quoted above really spoke to me on a more personal level.
2026 has been a year of new beginnings for me. The loss of my dear husband, Steve, on January 1 started it all. After 32 years together, I had long since forgotten what “my” choices and, if I’m being honest, what “my” desires were — for decades these things had been “ours.” Seasons of give and take, and compromise, we had a solid rhythm of what worked for us.
I had never lived truly “alone,” and with all our children and grandchildren out of state, I found myself for the first time being the only one whose needs, wants and desires mattered in our home. It was extremely weird at first.
Many times, I referred to the early days in this new learning curve as my “Runaway Bride” period. If you’ve ever seen this not terribly Christian movie, Julia Roberts, who plays bride Maggie Carpenter, who has fled every wedding venue and every groom she’d ever been engaged to, is challenged by news reporter Ike Graham, played by Richard Gere, with “you were so lost you didn’t even know what kind of eggs you like?” Gere’s character had done enough research for a piece he was doing on the “runaway bride” to know that however Maggie’s fiancé liked his eggs, is how she had ordered hers. If the fiancé liked over-easy, so did she, etc.
This caused Maggie to try all different kinds of eggs on her own, until she knew which type of egg was genuinely her favorite. Eggs Benedict, in case you were curious.
This has been my “how do you like your eggs” kind of year. In a way I had to choose if I was going to continue to use “our” old wineskin, or if I was going to become like a new wineskin (not to be confused with whineskin – that’s entirely different and could become a real temptation).
People asked things like:
Will you change churches? Don’t you think it will be odd to attend yours without Steve?
Will you be moving to where one of your kids live?
And, “Do you plan to keep doing Christian Living?”
No. No. Not at this time. And, most definitely yes! God has not released me from this calling yet!
That all said, none of this is possible if I chose to stay in the old wineskin. You see, an old wineskin becomes brittle, and usually when new wine is poured into it, it bursts. The winemaker must pour new wine into new, flexible wineskin for this process to work.
As we close out this year of firsts for me, I look forward with great anticipation, and hopeful readiness, to see what God has in store for me, and for Christian Living in 2027. I may not have the gift of prophecy, nor do I know what the day or hour will be of Christ’s return (no one does, so don’t be fooled if they tell you they do) — but I hope to be like one of the wise women from The Parable of The Ten Bridesmaids, so that regardless of the day or the hour, I’m ready, that not only is my lamp full of oil, but that I am prepared to wait for Him as necessary.
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:1-13 NIV)
Until then I just pray, as I always have, that He helps me to be mindful of my actions and words, so that I might bring glory and honor to Him in all that I do. I know that I’m fully human, and I will fail many times, but that is never my goal, or desire — my desire is to be more like Him each and every day.
May God bless you and your family with a wonderful holiday season. If this has been a tough season for you, I hope you’ll allow Him to carry you through it. If this has been a season of great joy for you, I hope you’ll give Him the praise and glory He deserves.
Until next time…
God Bless!
As we close out this year, I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to thank our advertisers, and our donors, without whom there would be no Christian Living Magazine, or radio show. I would ask that you please frequent our advertisers as often as possible, and thank them for their support of this ministry.
