You need to get the door....

A closed door, literally or figuratively, is shutting something out, or closing something in.  There is a barrier between us and the inside world we are trying to attain, or we are preserving our privacy from external forces behind a solid object that protects and shields what we have.

Generally, the closed door is a symbol for something inaccessible, and as such, we all can immediately relate to it.  The closed door is an easy metaphor for the past failure, the lost opportunity, the ended relationship.  An open door, on the other hand, symbolizes invitation, potential, a new beginning.  It is a peek into another world, one which may be just opening up to us, and it holds the offer of future possibilities.

For most, the closed door represents what cannot be accomplished.  The open door represents what may yet be experienced.

I think this is a bit too limiting.  Doors can be a barrier, especially when we refuse to take action and turn the knob.  But they can also be the start of something wonderful, as you grab hold of the opportunity and fling it wide open.

Every new relationship started with a closed door.  Every new job starts by walking through a door once closed that is now opened.  Every new undertaking begins by emerging through a door and into the experience.

My daughter, 19 years old, will be leaving in a couple of days for a life changing semester abroad in Africa.  Many doors appeared closed and bolted as she began her journey towards this goal, but she was undaunted.  She overcame the age restrictions of the program she had chosen.  She overcame the financial obstacles by applying for scholarship after scholarship.  She overcame parental fears by giving a critical analysis of how this experience of a lifetime would be to her benefit.  She has overcome the many goodbyes, and is facing the new situation with nerves slightly raw but intact, and two suitcases and a duffel bag full of everything she thinks she will need to survive for the next few months.

From the start, she saw the closed doors not as barriers to hold her back, but as hurdles to leap over and break through on her way to the ribbon at the end of the trail.  And in a couple of days, when she closes this door of preparation time behind her, she will have walked through it into a whole other life experience.  Such is the nature of doors.  For every ending closure, there is a newly opened beginning.

Ultimately, there will be things she forgot, and there will be things she will wish she had not wasted the space on.  There will be moments of sadness as she misses what she has left behind, and there will be moments of sheer elation that she is on the other side of the world.  She will, if all goes well, have two loves - both here and there - each with its own special characteristics and qualities.  But this experience cannot be had until she walks through a door once closed, which now has been opened to her.

Jesus stands at the door to our soul and knocks hopefully.  He does not see the closed entry as a permanent barrier.  For him, it is but a temporary screen.  It suits his purpose to knock, quietly but insistently.  He does not demand entrance, but waits to be invited in.  Our body may be his temple, but he wants to be a guest in a our heart only if we welcome him there.

In Revelation 3:20 we read:  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me."  (NASB)  For the Christian, opening the door to God is a pleasurable experience.  He will come to us and be with us and succor us in both bad times and good.  He will share our sorrows while he sustains us with the Bread of Life, and he will celebrate our joys with us as family.

As I send my precious child out into the big world to make it her own, I am comforted by the knowledge that she will have her Lord and Savior there for the journey, and that she will be uplifted and sustained by her faith in the months to come.  Although I cannot be there with her as she goes through this new experience, I know that her heart and life are in the hands of the One who created her.  I have been but a temporary watchman, waiting for Jesus to come home within her.  Now it is time for her to open the door into her own future, while I peek through the windows on the other side.

The peace that passes all understanding comes through the door, once closed, that you choose to open in your heart.  Jesus will be there, knocking, until you answer.