This is the absolute truth:
A girl who lived next door to me in my freshman dorm in college repeatedly told me that she believed I evolved from a carrot. Yep. A carrot. She said she got a strong “garden vibe” whenever I was nearby, but she was “certain” that it was specifically a carrot that shared my past.
I didn’t really like that girl very much.
But, I did find myself strangely curious about her seemingly overweight roommate after she gave birth to a baby girl in one of the shower stalls of our massive washroom. We were all shocked when we heard the news. No one knew this girl was pregnant — including the girl we were told! And based on the overwhelming surprise she displayed, I gathered that our resident psychic only picked up on veggie tales that emanated from the past.
But when Lou and I started to explore what it would be like to get involved in the world of wine, I felt myself being open to my “garden vibe.” Once I started to learn more about vines, grape varietals, and different aspects of wine, I discovered that if I were a grape, I’d be a Pinot Noir. Not only do those grapes make my favorite wine to drink, but the way the grapes grow best reminds me of how God challenges me in my walk with Him.
Pinot grapes grow in extremes.
They love hot days and frigid nights. They grow best in harsh, rocky “terroirs” (which is a wine term that generally means terrain), and they make amazing wine when they’ve suffered greatly.
Some growers withhold water and dry farm their pinot vines to allow the grapes to get all of the water they need from natural sources like rain and dense fog. You can’t totally neglect pinot vines, but smothering them with attention or things that make their growth easier can ruin the Truth inside of this grape. They don’t do well with short cuts; they just seem to thrive in the honest life cycle that God set in motion long ago.
When I pour myself a glass of pinot from one of my favorite vineyards, I can taste the story of the grape’s journey like it belongs to me, too. I like tasting some of the struggle the vines experienced. The challenge seems to produce beautiful character traits in the wine that easily come alive when I close my eyes and turn my attention inward.
The blackberry finish of a certain pinot can make me see how good I have it, while the rough texture in the tannins of another pinot might make me sink into one of my painful life lessons with a little more clarity. But a good Pinot Noir leaves a complete taste in my mouth, and it always reminds me of how every part of my journey has been necessary to create something valuable in my understanding of who God really is.
I’m almost finished telling you about my most intense memories of The Imposition Tour and looking back on all of the things I’ve told so far leaves me with so much perspective about my life and my marriage. I can clearly see times in this journey when God withheld things from Lou and me so we’d search deeper for Him; while at other times, Lou and I were the ones who leaned away from His Light in search of an easier way out. Then there are other times when God sheltered us from the worst possible storm that could’ve scattered us apart and made finding each other again a lost cause.
As a whole, there have been so many things about the past decade or so that were out of our control, and so very often, it’s been easy to frame up our story by saying, “Look at what happened to us.” But now, when I truly consider the collection of events and details from my past, all I can say to you is this:
“Look at what has happened for us.”
Coaxing character out of a grape and a soul have a lot of similarities, I suppose. There are mysteries that unfold inside of a growing cycle that only God can truly know and understand. But I see now that when a vine and a spirit are under the care of a loving Gardner, every moment is carefully considered, and everything the grape and human heart could ever need is provided without question. God is the Gardener of everything good that I know, and everything Truthful that I still believe…
