Tonight I was preparing to teach a Sunday School lesson tomorrow. One resource I was reviewing had a series of Advent devotionals and one devotional opened with a reflection on doors, using as its imagery a picture montage of various doors from a city that was the author’s home town. Several years ago I had purchased a picture of doors in Auburn, Alabama for Bill for a Christmas present, so I immediately related to the author’s choice of image.
This time of year is like standing before a door, with a sense of expectancy and anticipation. What will Christmas and the New Year bring? As the devotional writer put it…..
“Doors send a mixed message: dividing or joining, protecting or welcoming, withholding or revealing. Closed, bolted, locked, doors make a powerful statement about our need to separate ourselves- from strangers, annoying salespeople, anyone making demands on our dwindling time. Unlatched, flung open, doors suggest how far humans will go as they draw others into their private space, to listen, to hurt, laugh, cry and heal.
Doors suggest mystery. In corners of musty cellars, at the edge of an attic, in the labyrinths of pretend haunted houses, they tempt us to explore the unknown.
Doors invite hope. We sit expectantly, and often anxiously, in hospital lounges for word of new birth or successful surgery, the door to the operating room or emergency room the focus of our gaze and attention.
Advent is a door to a new year, somthing unknown, mysterious and inviting. As you open the Scriptures during these days of the new liturgical year, open your heart to the possibilities of renewal and rebirth. Wait expectantly, vigilantly and quietly for the Word Made Flesh to be more visible in your daily life.”
I’ve heard it said more often than I care to recall that “when God closes a door, He opens a window.” I disagree with that imagery. When God closes a door, He opens another door. And He does it again and again and again throughout our lives. Through each cycle of seasons He is re-extending the invitation to us to enter into His kingdom. With the fresh start of each new year He is giving us the opportunity to enter into relationship with Him or to enter into deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him.
We had hung Bill’s picture of the Auburn doors in his work office. I’m thinking it’s time to bring it home and enjoy it here for the holiday season!
God’s door is decorated for the season. It invites us to come in and enjoy His incarnation and His present dwelling in our midst.