The Symbolism of Wine

Most everyone knows that wine is referenced in the Bible to symbolize the blood Christ shed to redeem mankind.  Every time I see a glass of red wine, my mind is triggered and I pause to just take in the magnitude of that gift.  

Last week I opened a bottle of wine (sorry, I'm a white wine kinda girl).  This probably sounds so incredibly ridiculous, but this bottle gave me pause for another reason altogether.

I realize that I desperately need to dust.  My apologies.

During our fertility struggles, I would have to take hormones prior to taking the fertility drugs.  Month after month these attempts were unsuccessful.  So each month, when the test came back negative, I'd go try a new bottle of wine since I had two weeks before I had to start another treatment.  I had grown so accustomed to this, that the wine and pregnancy tests purchases went hand in hand.  (I'm POSITIVE that more than one cashier thought I was already the world's worst mother.)

Last August I made my regular purchase, went home, waited a few days for the "test of disappointment" (making sure my bottle of chardonnay was on standby).  I woke up that morning fully expecting to start another round of hormones that night.  I took the test and the reading was invalid.  I shrugged, thought it was a bit odd, but figured I just got a bad test, and went back to bed.  A few hours later when I got up for the day, I thought I'd give it another shot.  Lo and behold, it was positive!

Less than 2 weeks prior to Emory's arrival!

I remember that morning with extreme clarity.  I didn't tell Phillip.  He was in the shower anyway.  I called my OB for a blood test.  The next morning she called and said, "This is, by far, the most well-deserved congratulations I've had to give in a long time.  Your test is positive.  It's real!"  I actually told her to shut up and I probably asked her if she was certain about 50 times.  It took two more days for me to tell Phillip (I had to get him a sercy!), but we were elated.  Want to talk about difficult: try waiting that long to get pregnant and then keeping it to yourself for 3 days.  That's hard!

I put that bottle up and every time I saw it over the next year, I was reminded of how great God is and how He can take my doubting Thomas of a heart and bless me beyond belief.  I opened that bottle last Friday after putting our 3 month old baby boy to bed for the night.  I literally cried tears of happiness.  I sat in bed and read a bit while having my glass, however I just couldn't help but replay over and over how much our lives have changed over the past year.

Our precious little man at 9 days old

I'm pretty sure I'm keeping the empty bottle for flowers or something.  I think everyone could use small reminders of God's faithfulness in their homes and lives.  This is definitely one of mine. 

Our world.

Emory is the greatest reminder.  Obviously.  :-)

God is SO good.