Weekday Devotion With Pastor Chris

     The wine app “Vivino” has some 35 million subscribers worldwide.  Drawing from some 40 million reviews and 120 million ratings from its members, Vivino declared Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 the best wine in the world last year.  So I did a bit of research.

     Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate gave the wine a 99 rating.  They wrote, “the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon leaps from the glass with gorgeous floral notes of red roses and lilacs over a core of black and red cherries, crushed black currants and baking spices plus hints of iron ore and dusty earth.”  I love some of the adjectives that follow: voluptuous, rounded, soft and sexy, full-bodied, decadently powerful, layered and boldly perfumed.  I think that qualifies as effusive.  Actually, they kind of lost me with the hints of iron ore and dusty earth…

     Wine Spectator was not quite so lavish in its praise.  They gave the wine a 96 and wrote that it is “Broad, expansive and layered, with dark berry, currant, anise, cedar and sage notes, supported by firm, chewy tannins and an impressive aftertaste where the flavors glide along rather effortlessly.”  Let’s see, both reviews both mention dark berries and currants, but apart from that it is hard to believe they are describing the same wine.
 

 

     You might be wondering how much the top rated bottle costs: I found prices ranging from $589 to $1,349.99.  The trick, not surprisingly, is finding a place that actually carries it.  The price might strike you as a bit much, but it looks almost modest when you compare it to the second ranked wine (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, La Tache 2000, which averages $4,810 a bottle on Wine-searcher.com), and the fourth ranked one (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, 2011 Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru which averages about $2,100).

     I was once at a party where someone was tasting a $400 bottle, but that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to that kind of wine.  While I’m sure it would be wasted on me, I imagine for the connoisseur, tasting an extraordinary bottle of wine must be an exquisite experience.  Still, I don’t think spending a fortune on something consumed in a single sitting was exactly what Jesus had in mind when he said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own” (Mt. 6:34).

     This is an anxious time.  One response is to throw our hands up and live wholly for the moment, giving up on any hope for tomorrow.  But that’s not what Jesus had in mind either.  In fact, just the opposite.  Jesus invites us to let go our fears of what tomorrow might bring, trusting instead in the sure promise that our lives abide in the hands of a faithful, loving God.  Don’t let your fears of what tomorrow might bring ruin the blessings to be found today.  There is just no doubt: our lives couldn’t be in a better place.

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?”  (Mt. 6:26)

- Pastor Chris