Friday, March 19, 2010

Dearest God,

You have taught me many life lessons this past year. I have said it before but I am still uncovering them and I want to celebrate as they come to me. And why not?

I have learned that when a person walks through a door opened by you, a new world awaits. Life is seen through fresh eyes. The old crud gives way to new skin. Healing salve sits on a shelf waiting to mend injuries and wounds. Hope perches itself next to the front door. Peace offers slow breaths and clear minds. The present becomes a place to live fully and wholly. I figure we never exit out that door because we could get the idea that we have to leave there. Side doors are available to those who wish to travel the next leg of the journey. Hardship, question, doubt, confusion may come but the door you open is always available and we can stay as long as we want. It's a place of ongoing discovery.

While that is absolutely wonderful, a mystical paradise because you are there, something even more wonderful is possible. As life is shared with others about the learnings of your open door, others act courageously and travel, finding an open door to them. Generations of people contribute, leading others to the glorious entrance.

A friend told me the other day that my open door had lead him to walk through his own. As he recognized transformation in me, you awakened in him a need to take his own pilgrimage. It wasn't only my open door but another friend's door as well. He watched us both walk through the entrance to heaven. I see a new joy in him as every other day new dimensions of life are opening up to him and he is finding his own way home.

Isn't this what you desire? A life of faith shared with those around us? Isn't eternal joy possible every day? An experience of eternity for one is grand but when one's experience becomes two, then three and four, the joyous hope is multiplied and lives are transformed. One moment with you is far better than a moment anywhere else and so much more life is possible when shared.

Thank you,
Glorious Redeemer,
for open doors.
Your love
is like
none other.
You call
to us,
inviting us in.
We sit
with you,
feasting on your
life-giving bread.
Why would
we dine
anywhere else?
Tonight
I am full,
dear God,
full of you.

Always, Andrea