Doors

Wearily, the donkey trudged through the dusty streets of the little town. His journey had been long, more than a week walking up and down the hills on well-worn trails. Familiar smells of other animals, clean straw and grain came to him, promising comfort after his long trek.

The man and woman with him were just as hopeful of rest and provision. Mary had been feeling strong contractions all day, and was getting anxious to lie down and let her labor begin in earnest. She was still a young woman, well under 20 years of age, but she knew plenty about these things. Joseph, wearing a cloak over his common workman's clothing, had been hearing his young wife alternately hiss and sigh during the afternoon, and knew those were urgent signs. But everywhere he had stopped that evening, he had been turned away.

Joseph had been sure, coming to the town where his grandfather had been a well-known citizen, that he would be welcomed by kinfolk. But the town was full for the Roman census, and and every door had been shut, firmly and sometimes unkindly, in his face. Did his relatives know that Mary's pregnancy had started before their wedding? Rumors travel a long way, even by foot, and the whole village of Nazareth had known of the pregnancy. Not even an innkeeper would take them in to earn a few shekels, but finally a kindly villager offered them room in the animal shelter cut into the rock face behind his simple home. There, during the night, Immanuel was born, welcomed by a few animals, his parents, and all the hosts of heaven.

This scene is not only history but a picture of a greater reality. Both at his birth and later during his ministry, his own people didn't accept Jesus. He was reviled as an illegitimate child, rejected as a teacher who challenged the authorities, and generally not welcomed. So, the question inevitably comes from the Bible teacher, does the hearer or the reader offer this Jesus 'room in your heart'? That's a good question, as far as it goes.

A little background, for clarity: by becoming flesh, God inseparably united all people with himself in a way they had never yet experienced. So in one sense, all people are already in God's heart; but God is not yet active in the hearts of all people. As a lot of teachers have explained over the centuries, that door -- like the doors of the homes and inns in Bethlehem that night -- opens from the inside only. God doesn't force anyone to love him; but he desires intimacy with you so much that his only son died to make it possible (John 3:16-17). So the question is legitimate -- have you opened the door to let him in?

But wait (like in those TV ads) there's more -- which room have you let Jesus into? And which ones, in the house of your mind and life, are still closed? Which rooms are you still guarding, through unwillingness or shame, from God who knows about them anyway? Jesus has already died and been raised, to wipe out the sins and weaknesses we try to hide by not admitting them. The only solution to all the things in life we can't solve, is to give them up to the God who came to be with us, and is still with us (see Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25).

Revelation 3:20 says: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." Today would be a good day to open all the rest of those doors, wouldn't it?