A post from Becky...
Back in about 1980 when we were living in Bochum, we had a German student living with us who nearly drove me crazy. During our years in Germany we had quite a number of students live in our home at different times and we loved ALL of them and learned so much from each of them. Except this one. He was Mr. Inflexible. He criticized everything that wasn't done the way he, his parents and all his ancestors had done it and wouldn't eat anything they hadn't eaten. After a few weeks of this I was ready to go around the bend. I mentioned the situation to another missionary wife and she shared a verse with me that has come back to me soooo many times since then:
Jeremiah 48:11 says: Moab has been at ease since his youth; he has also been undisturbed on his lees, neither has he been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. Therefore he retains his flavor, and his aroma has not changed.
Nancy made the observation that oftentimes people who have never had to undergo major life changes or who have resisted them are like Moab in this verse - they haven't been poured from vessel to vessel and their aroma and flavor never change. That was certainly true of this guy.
I was thinking of this verse again this morning because we have just entered Week 10 in the countdown to Pete's retirement and soon we'll be in the single digits! My stomach gets full of butterflies at the thought of all the changes coming at us like an avalanche. I have to remind myself that it's not really an avalanche - it's simply another experience of being "emptied from vessel to vessel", this time back into a vessel we're familiar with. But the wine of our lives has changed in the meantime!
Keil & Delitzsch's commentary on this verse says that "good wine improves on being undisturbed; inferior wine deteriorates". Being undisturbed or being emptied from vessel to vessel doesn't necessarily guarantee any particular result, positive or negative, but it's interesting that Jeremiah uses the picture the way he does. As I think about the times we've been emptied from vessel to vessel (US to Germany, Bochum to Aachen, Aachen to the farm, the farm to Baltimore and back, the farm to LA) I can say that the changes God has engineered or allowed in our lives have all produced great blessing to us. This particular season has brought us an incredible harvest of wonderful relationships, experiences and growth.
I had an appointment with a new doctor this morning and he asked me what my interests are. I told him I do anything that has to do with fiber and I collect friends. He asked me, "How many friends would you say you have?" I didn't have to think very hard to say that I have at least 20 women that I consider good friends here in LA and many more across the country. He said he'd just heard a program that was discussing friendship and in the past most people had 3 friends but now people have (on average) 1.5 friends. Compared to the national average, we are richly blessed with friends! I can't imagine my life without the blessing these women have brought me!
Each friend and opportunity and experience is a gift from our Father and if those were somehow made sensory as "aroma" or "flavor", I'm certain that the aroma and flavor of our lives have been greatly changed and enhanced by them. As we go back to the farm, we will be very different people from those who left and we hope it is a difference that will make us a sweeter aroma of Christ to those around us.
