The Other Side of the Door

“Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” How many times have we recited or sung this quote from Jesus? Yet have we ever really thought about where that door leads?  Salvation? Heaven? Certainly....Absolutely.  But is there something more? Was Jesus talking about walking through Himself as the entrance to Heaven? Certainly. Yet does that Open Door offer even more than eternal life insurance? Certainly His ultimate gift born of agonizing sacrifice is something to be intensely grateful for every day of our existence here. Yet is there even more in His invitation? To what is He inviting us?

As He often does, God keeps giving me images of parenting and grandparenting to help me understand who He is and what He desires.  This morning, after continuing my reading in Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, I was struck by his reference to time and space in our relationship with the Trinity of God.  We only pursue God in response to His pursuit of us. When we respond to that pursuit, we find Him right there with us, as near as our breath. He has been waiting there all along, hoping we’ll ‘knock’ so He can fling wide the door of His heart to us.  Right now, in the present moment, His immanence scoops us into His waiting arms.

When I visit my new granddaughter, I try to wait patiently in the wings, hoping for the opportunity to scoop her into my arms and hold her against my heart.   I know there are many wanting time with her, desiring her attention.  So I wait, aching to hold her close, to comfort her when she cries, to make her smile, to help her fall asleep when she’s taken in so much ‘input’ that she has trouble finding that place of peace.  When she hears her father’s voice, she immediately stills and listens for him. It is sometimes he alone who can comfort her.

I have come to understand, though I know that understanding is only partial, how much God longs for us to turn our face to Him, to realize how near He is, how He waits there longing for us to choose to respond to His overtures of love.  How He longs for us to hear His voice whispering our name and fling ourselves into His arms.

I remember one evening Emma fell asleep over my heart as I rocked her.  I could have happily held her all night long, my heart nearly bursting its confines, like the Grinch of the Christmas tale. And I remember rocking her mother and her two brothers and feeling the same way.  I didn’t love one child more than the others; I loved each one as if he or she was an only child. With each one, it was as if my heart would explode with love (and that love has never diminished). Our tender-hearted Father loves us more than this. There is so much more beyond the door than we can imagine...not just in Heaven, but right now. Don’t leave Him waiting with unrequited love. Pursue Him and you will find that you don’t have to take a single step; you will bump right into Him.
***************
"You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek..." [Psalm 27:8]

"Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened."  [Matthew 7:7-8]

"...always He is trying to get our attention, to reveal Himself to us, to communicate with us.  We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures."

"It is not a sovereign and irresistible force which comes upon us as a seizure from above.  It is a gift of God, indeed, but one which must be recognized and cultivated as any other gift..."    
[Tozer, The Pursuit of God]