WINE MAKING

Hello there dear gist partner. 

How are you doing this fine Thursday? Here’s hoping that God continues to strengthen and keep you and that you see His hand in your life. 

It’s another Guest Feature Thursday!! 

Today, we have the blessing of having one of my dearest friends gist with us on the blog today. I call her a lot of things that will probably annoy her if I let the world know but officially, she is Joy N. Tyem, Esq. And she has a message for us. 

Without much ado, welcome to today’s gist. 

One of my favorite things to do lately, is to break down the lyrics of our favorite songs to us, so that we know what we’re singing and don’t just get carried away with how beautiful the rhythm is and how poetic the words are. 

We love to sing along to sweet songs and beautiful melodies and that’s okay. 

Here’s one that we all really love:

“In the crushing, In the pressing

You are making, new wine…”.

Wine making is a very delicate process. The crushing is actually the third process involved in wine making; the first is the plucking or harvesting of the grapes, obviously, then followed by a process called de-stemming. It involves separating the grapes from the clutter: the branches and leaves as (in some cases) they may make the wine bitter, later on. 

The next stage is the one we’re familiar with and our emphasis for tonight; the crushing. 

It involves breaking the skin, to release juice. The grapes are crushed and pressed hard because all the juices must be extracted. A similar process is involved, in extracting the juice from palm fruits, which can later be processed into oil.

So you see the things we cry for daily - fresh oil, new wine; they’re not easy to come by. 

Anyway, back to our wine gist. There are a few more processes involved before the bottling: different stages of fermentation, where you cover and let the wine to ‘sit’, but with close monitoring at intervals. Many experts then wrap it up with a process called clarification, which entails the removal of solid particles and impurities from the wine and then they usually follow up with filtration, because the goal is perfect wine. 

Something I forgot to add earlier when I likened the extraction of the juice in wine-making to that of oil making is that, in the crushing, the wine/oil maker knows when there’s still enough juice left in the grapes/palm fruits and so He would press some more, not because He hates them, but because He knows there’s more and He wants to bring out the more. 

This is not about wine, nor is it about palm oil. 

Many times, like grape fruits being plucked from their vine, we’re yanked out of our comfort zones - physically, mentally, emotionally and then we still get detached (de-stemmed) from things that we strive to hold unto - aspirations, dreams, people, ideas, things…. etcetera. 

Then sometimes it feels like the weight of the world is on our shoulders and we are being hard pressed on every side; literally everything is going wrong and we can’t seem to catch a break. This stage is very critical, because many times, we’re unable to see beyond the immediate pain, to what possible glories await in the future and what that does to us, if we let it, is that we lose our focus (on the joy set before us) and give attention to the cross, the shame, the pain and try to find coping mechanisms that turn into habits that do not ultimately Glorify God. 

There are also times where we are forced to let go of things, ideas, habits and people that may have previously formed a part of us and we ordinarily would not want to let go (clarification; filtration) but usually, if you stay the course, you’ll see that God brought consolation and He also turned those losses around for your good. Ah! God is good. One day, we’ll discuss the lyrics that say, “…Your Goodness is running after, It’s running after me…”, but for today, let’s finish this New Wine matter. 

Then at the end of the day, we’re walking out of the wine press; chin up, shoulders high, because an unbelievably new man with enlarged capacity and a broadened knowledge of who God is, has been formed. Oh, what Glory! 

Do you, right now, feel crushed or hard pressed on every side? Because I do. And for a second, I almost couldn’t see beyond the crushing. This piece is a reminder to me, as much as it is to you, that in the crushing and in the pressing, God is making new wine; something new, something good. 

Let us trust our wine-maker. He’s a careful gardener and winemaker; He is faithful, from vineyard to new wine. 

I trust my Wine-Maker.

Thank you so much my friend for blessing us with your thoughts, may your oil never run dry. 

And thank you so much gist partner for being here, I am sure you’ve learned a thing or two from my friend’s thoughts. 

May our hearts remain trusting.  

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: our song recommendation for this week, obviously, is ‘New Wine’ by HillSong. Nothing much needs be said, may this song bless your heart. 

Audiomack: https://audiomack.com/hillsong-worship/song/new-wine-live?share-user-id=140072136 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1GHiyg8UOFAHavQJ7EWI34?si=UwV-JbL5TsCCJzpP1AmoVA 

YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0TFVEYkt7So&si=hh4WW6wC7C2DzemX 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week!

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. I dey NYSC orientation camp, for the sake of my, and your, sanity, I won’t tell you everything that has happened in the last 2 days but maybe when I leave this place, I’ll write about this place. In case, you no see me any week for here, bear with me abeg, camp is a lot! Thanks and God bless.