Monday 10 April 2017

A bottle of French wine and a French church …




A week ago I spent a few days in Aix-en-Provence, a lovely little city in the heart of the French Provence. I can sense the jealousy right now. Go ahead. I loved it. That part of France is a feast for the senses. The mini amateur photographer that I am wanted to capture every image of beauty that my eye saw …which was just about everything, ….even the old doorknobs were beautiful.





 I was in Aix for a conference which my brother Tim was holding on the subject of education. Tim and I grew up in France. We each had our own “French” experiences, some more positive than others, but many of which still impact us today. One of the impacts of his years in France is that Tim enjoys a great red wine.  He and his wife Mona actually bought an authentic wine “cave” in downtown Aix, which they turned into a lovely  “get away” cellar studio.  I am not a wine “connaisseur” and being basically clueless on the subject, I would listen very intently when Tim would pull out one of his chosen cellar wines and give me a summary of where the wine was from, what made this one different from others, and what components one might be able to recognize as you swish it around in your mouth. So with my head full of  “wine connaissance”, and my taste buds on heightened alert to be able to hopefully recognize some hint of an element that he had depicted, I would take a sip.

 
Well… I am sorry to say that no emotional explosion or enlightenment happened to me at that  moment, but I do have to admit that in that mouthful of red liquid  swishing around in my mouth I knew that what I was tasting years of captured history, hard work, organic ingredients found in the earth and probably many other things.




 I felt similar emotions walking into one of Aix’  cathedrals.  It was imposing, majestic and beautiful, but what I sensed captured within those walls were years of secrets, personal tragedies, hopeful aspirations, bitter disappointments as well as times of thanksgiving and celebration. And there I was, standing within those old walls, adding my “present package” to the past.

This past month I have been teaching on the book of Esther - a book in which the name of God is not mentioned once, but in which one can sense and see His mighty hand at work throughout this captivating story. Esther, an orphan girl raised by her cousin, ends up being chosen as the new queen of Syria, and plays a huge role in saving the people of Israel.  Mordecai, the son of an exiled Jew who chose not to return to Israel, inherits a daughter, raises her, and challenges her to put her life at risk to hopefully prevent a genocide.
 

 We cannot disconnect our pasts and the parts we play in the big story from what God is doing in the present.  Did you know that in some place the word "future" used in the Bible, incorporates the word "your past" as well. As if you couldn't separate the two.

 The part you and I play in our world today is an important one. We may not understand it all, and maybe not even recognize how our past and the pasts of others plays into what we are to do today, somewhat like  all that has gone into a good French wine, but it is there, and I believe that God uses it ALL …. “for such a time as this”,  for these very moments, and it can be lived out by no one other than you.

 

  "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11