Gone Be the Old and Come Here the New
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. (Luke 5:37)
As the Cantonese saying goes, "If the old doesn’t go, the new won’t come." It is not easy to break away from the old and stand up for the new. But it is necessary.
Jesus explained it very thoroughly. The old and the new cannot stand together. The new must be matched with the new. If you insist to match the new with the old, you will only lose both. When new clothes are used to patch old clothes, one has to tear off a piece of the new clothes, which leads to a waste of the new clothes, and the result is that the old and new do not match. When new wine is poured into the old bottle, the old bottle will burst and the new wine will leak away, and both will be wasted. The reason why people are reluctant to taste new wine is because they are always drinking old wine, and they always say old wine is the best!
“No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:36-39)
The coronavirus disease has spanned three Chinese New Years in Hong Kong. Called as “new crown” in Chinese, it has lasted to near a thousand days and still refuses to become “old crown”. Sigh! This however will not hinder us from making personal renewals. May we let go of the old and open our arms to embrace the new, when the fifteenth day of Lunar New Year has not yet come and so the Chinese New Year is not yet over.
Happy Valentine's Day next Monday! And Happy Chinese Valentine's Day on the Lantern Festival next Tuesday!
Co-laborer
Priscilla
11 February 2022
