The bottle that ended World War III

This is the bottle that ended world war three.
Well… what felt like WWIII between my bride and I.

We bought this bottle as newlyweds with no money, we splurged on a right bank Bordeaux that we would be able to cellar for more than a few years. It would age along with us and when the moment was right, at some undetermined time in the future, we would open it, enjoy it, and consider and the story the wine has been a part of.

Many reserve special wines for momentous occasions, and that’s fun, but there’s something special about opening an extraordinary wine on an ordinary Wednesday. Now, I don’t know that this is an extraordinary wine by anyone’s standards but our own, but it was to us.

This was a big one, the kind of argument that travels around the house.

“We just had a World War III here in our kitchen
We both thought the meanest things
And then we both said them
We shot at each other till we lost ammunition

This is how I know our love
This is when I feel it's power
Here in the absence of it
This is my darkest hour
When both of us are hunkered down
And waiting for the truce

All the complicated wars
They end pretty simple
Here when the lights go down
We roll to the middle”

-Sara Groves “Roll to the Middle”

What we discovered that night is that there’s something profoundly special about opening a great wine in the midst of great difficulty. The argument wasn’t even really over, I just felt compelled to grab it and opened it. I pray a lot while fighting (give me patience, help me understand, give me compassion, help me love better) and occasionally in that prayer I get fairly convicted about what I should do. Last night, it was to go grab that bottle and two glasses.

In retrospect I think the wine was a reminder that the current strife is momentary and there are beautiful things that were here before and will be here long after the argument is over. It was a reminder that the best things in life are not so precious that they should be reserved for the best moments, but goodness and beauty have a place and a role to play in the midst of pain.

God pours out his best for us even when we are in the midst of our own chaotic mess, this wine was an incredible, tangible reminder of that.

The wine was fantastic. I could not be more happy we opened it when we did.