Mulled Wine

Ah, 'tis the season for mulling things.  Mulled wine - both red and white* - mulled cider, mulled juices ...

 

I love mulled wine.  I love the beautiful, rich smell as all of the spices and flavours mingle and merge together.  And, of course, I love drinking it and feeling the warmth spread through me.

 

I like that it's a drink for sipping slowly and enjoying all of the different flavours.

 

I think that the Christmas story is a bit like mulled wine.  We so often gulp it down in one or two big mouthfuls: Mary and Joseph.  Engaged.  Pregnant by the power of God's Spirit.  No room at the inn.  Stable.  Baby born.  Shepherds.  Wise men.  Gifts.  Throw in a few classic farmyard animals and a few angels and you have got yourself a nativity play.

 

It's a story which we have all heard hundreds of times before.  It's a story which is woven into the fabric of our culture.  But it's also a story which we often don't pay much attention to, because we think we know it already .  And we think that we know all of the details already too.

 

But, like mulled wine, there are subtle flavours to be discovered, if we sip the story slowly and spend time mulling it over.

 

Even before Jesus' birth, God was at work in the Christmas story.  Rereading the book of Luke the other day, I came across this passage where Zachariah (Mary's cousin's husband and the father of John the Baptist), praises God:

 

      "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
      he came and set his people free.
      He set the power of salvation in the centre of our lives [...]

      a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
      So we can worship him without a care in the world,
      made holy before him as long as we live."

 

       [Luke 1:67, 70 MSG]

 

We are set free and rescued, through Jesus.  We need not have a care in the world, if we put our trust in Him.  We are holy and pure and beautiful in His eyes the moment we turn to Him and start to trust Him. 

 

This is just a tiny part of what Zachariah says, but there is so much to take in.  So much to sip and savour. 

 

Rather than 'downing' the Christmas story in one big gulp this year, let's take the time to sip it slowly and savour every flavour.

 

 

  

 

* I thoroughly enjoyed some mulled white wine last year as a seasonal twist on a classic and would highly recommend it.