The Living Door

I opened the door to see my father standing in the hall. This was the first time he came to visit me. At the time, I lived alone in a small apartment a few miles from my parents' home. He was wearing his usual starched, white hospital uniform where he worked some twenty years. In fact, I was born in the same hospital. My eyes traced the many white snap color buttons that ran along one side of the shirt, just below the shoulders to keep a large flap closed. At that moment, I wanted to reach out and touch it remembering as a child when he walked into the door at the end of a long shift and picked me up in his arms.

"Dad?"

He looked uncomfortable as he shifted his weight. His eyes darted about almost looking for the nearest exit. "I've come to say goodbye." His voice held little emotion, but something didn't seem quite right. My head slightly bent as if to hear the undertones in his dry, flat tone.

Then in seconds he was gone. I hurried over to the living room window and stood on my toes trying to catch a glimpse of his car pulling away but didn't see anything below.

He never went to work but drove back to his mother's house in another state. Twenty-three years of marriage came to abrupt end leaving us bemused and relieved. For the most part, Dad was a stranger who sat quietly on the couch with very little interaction. As the years rolled on, he settled in a comfortable pattern of work and sleeping while we were at school. He was gone before most of us had swung open the front door after school.

I'm reminded of the Scripture when Jesus says in John 10:9 "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." (KJV).

It's not enough to stand outside a home wanting to know what it might be like inside, you have to go through the front door. For most of my life I'd open doors hoping to find my father waiting on the other side. Sadly, these were doors that should never be opened. Instead of my Dad greeting me, I was embraced by frustration, misery and emptiness.

This morning Jesus whispered to my heart, "I receive you." To walk through the front door is one thing, but to be warmly and lovingly received when the door swings open makes all the difference.

If are standing outside, shivering with fear and the rain of sorrow falling on your head, place your hand on the Living Door.

He will open it and receive you into a place of safety and love - into the very chambers of His heart. Jesus said, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 15:7 NIV). I long for a father and behind the Door, God the Father was waiting, all the time, with arms open wide to say, "I receive you!"

He's waiting for you, beloved, go on, it's all right. Open the Door, it's not locked to keep you from the blessings waiting inside!