Sunday Message: A new spin on an old verse

Yes, that's not Jesus at the top of a Sunday Message.  That's Chipper, and those of you that follow my Time Machine posts know that he is part of a video by Real Estate called Paper Cup- a video I told you was "the dumbest thing that ever made me cry."  And as it turned, it taught me a valuable lesson about grief.  I have a lot of friends who have dealt with long-standing grief, losing partners, even years later.  And I admit, sometimes their marking of such anniversaries puzzled me. 


But it turns out the thing that puzzled me there also kept me from figuring just WHY the Chipper video made me cry every time (and still is).  But a few nights back, I stopped and read some of the comments on the video on YouTube.  There were a LOT of people who had reactions just like I did.  Some of them were just as confused about it as I was, others had it dialed right in.  And one of those answered my question with his comment about why it hit him so hard:


This reminds me of when my boyhood dog died in my arms and waited to see me one last time before dying after my overnight shift (at) a group home ...


And it hit me so hard- I was the boy, and Chipper was Scrappy...


Which explained why I was beginning to have "bad Scrappy days" again, despite having Misty.  And as I meditated about it, I realized what my friends already knew- it's not good to build a new 'love of my life' over an old foundation.  And as I prayed, I heard Jesus' words in Mark 2- a verse that I had always struggled with the deeper meaning of...

Mar 2:21  And no one sews a patch of unmilled cloth on an old garment, else it takes away its fullness, the new from the old, and a worse tear occurs. 
Mar 2:22  And no one puts new wine into old skins, else the new wine bursts the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh skins. 


And that is really what was happening- I was trying to pour new wine into old wineskins.  I was telling myself that I wasn't 'allowed to ' think about losing Scrappy anymore, because it wouldn't be fair to Misty.  But what wasn't fair to Misty was using her as an excuse to suppress honest grief.

A lot of you already got that.  I get it now.  And thanks be to a merciful God who gives us the ability to keep the old wine, and put the new wine in new skins.