Chianti, Italy, is world-renowned for its vineyards and excellent wine.
A traveler who was staying there for a while once said to a vineyard owner, “Chianti must have very fertile soil. Just look at how beautifully these famous grapes grow!”
The vineyard owner replied, “Not really. The soil here is not particularly fertile. In fact, good grapes do not necessarily grow in fertile soil.”
The traveler was surprised. The owner continued, “When the soil is too fertile, the vines grow too quickly. But when vines grow too quickly, they do not need to send their roots very deep into the ground. As a result, the grapes may be abundant, but they do not develop the depth and richness needed to make excellent wine.”
Vines often grow more slowly in poor soil. Because they must search deeply and widely for water and nutrients, their roots become strong and extensive. The vines may struggle more, but that struggle contributes to the quality of the grapes. And excellent grapes produce excellent wine.
This reminds me of a simple principle of life: what grows too easily does not always become strong.
In a rather humorous way, the song “Easy Come, Easy Go” comes to mind. Of course, this is not true of everything, but there is often a natural rhythm to life. Everything has its proper time, and many things take as long as they take.
We may wish that oak trees could grow overnight like mushrooms, or that pine trees could grow as quickly as tomatoes. But they cannot. Oak trees and pine trees need years to become strong and mature. A baby also needs about ten months before coming into the world. Some things simply cannot be rushed.
Education is the same. True education and formation may take ten or twenty years. Character cannot be produced overnight. Leadership cannot be developed in a few weeks. Ministry also requires time.
There is a critical point in physics when water reaches 100 degrees Celsius and begins to boil. Until that point, we may see the water becoming hotter, but nothing dramatic seems to happen. Then, at the right moment, it boils. The process was taking place all along, even though the result was not yet visible.
The Bible speaks about things happening “in due time.” Perhaps this means that God often allows us to go through the amount of time necessary for us to become ready for what He wants to accomplish.
Think about a bowl being filled with water. At first, nothing happens. Then it becomes half full, then three-quarters full, and eventually completely full. When more water is added, it overflows. The overflow is not the beginning of the filling process; it is the result of everything that happened before it.
Perhaps our lives are like that.
We often want the overflow without going through the filling.
We want the fruit without the roots.
We want the harvest without the waiting.
We want maturity without the process.
We want the wine without allowing the grapes to grow.
But God may be using the difficult soil, the slow growth, and the waiting season to develop something deep within us.
So we need time to wait and time to prepare.
The slow season is not necessarily a wasted season. It may be the season in which our roots are growing deepest.
And when the right time finally comes, what has been growing quietly beneath the surface may produce something excellent.
Excellent wine takes time. Excellent people do, too.