The Door to Freedom

THIS WEEK, you'll notice, I've got a brand new background. My old one disappeared for a little while and I have taken it as an opportunity to try a new one. My lovely cousin Rina helped me fix it.

I'm really excited about what I'm going to tell you about today because on Tuesday I had one of what Rina has called "God moments." It's a really cool, seemingly unimportant event which leads you to think more about what God has done and who He is. I had to write this down right after it happened because it was just SO cool.

So I was doing my quiet time on Tuesday, studying John 14. It's a wonderful chapter which includes a description of the Holy Spirit. I found this very useful to me because it reminded me that we don't need to worry that we don't always know what to do to serve God: His Spirit is here precisely for the purpose of teaching us and guiding us.

But my 'God moment' actually happened right after I was done studying that amazing chapter. You see, when I sat down to do my quiet time, there were these two rather annoying flies buzzing around my window. I'm very glad now that I didn't move somewhere else to avoid them. I heard them humming furiously and I watched them slamming their faces repeatedly into the glass as they attempted to obtain the freedom they could glimpse through my window. They were very persistent. Again and again they beat against the deceptive glass. There it was: their goal, their greatest desire, liberty. It was just out of reach, and they could not accept it.

Before my quiet time was completely over I watched them for a little while. Sometimes one would go away from the window to recover from frustration and pain, but he would come back and try again as if he had a reason to think his escape could be more successful now. I began to pity them. It was a sad thing to watch. So I tried my best to open my window: first with my hands, then using a hairbrush for a lever. I even tried asking Jesus for the strength to open it up. But He didn't let me open the window at that time: He had something to show me.

Once I was done looking at John 14 I put on my shoes and went outside into the backyard and went around to the outside of my bedroom window. I used a shovel to open the window a few inches. As I replaced the shovel near the wall and went back inside, I felt like I had done a good thing for the flies.

When I came back into my room, you would guess that they would have flown out into the warm summer air, where they longed to go. But no! The silly creatures were still making a fuss next to the glass on the wood frame of my window. They didn't even notice the opening!

Do you see why this was a God moment? By the time I returned to my room I had noticed that we people are very much like those flies, and that I, like Jesus, had opened up a door to freedom that they did not seem to want to take.

Everyone in the world has a desire for the eternal planted in his heart. Everyone, whether religious or not, tries to acheive eternity in some form, whether it is eternal recognition of an accomplishment, the assurance of a continued existence reincarnated as a human instead of an animal, or, in Christians' case, spending forever with Jesus in Heaven. These flies wanted to go outside the way we want to have eternity and security and joy. But they could only get it one way, and they weren't taking the opportunity.

I rushed back outside and picked up the shovel again. This time I widened the opening even more: even the flies should be smart enough to go through this wide a door. I felt victorious as I saw one fly go past me into the outside world. I returned again indoors and immediately I saw that one fly had retreated to the far end of my room. I waved my arms at him to encourage him to go over to the window again, which he did, but it took a moment for him to understand that the way was open now. Then he flew right outside, finally free.

We're all born like flies trapped on the inside of a window, trying to get out. We try to gain joy and satisfaction and peace and all the things that God offers by trusting in possessions and people and philosophies in the world. But they can't give us what God can, and He knows it. So He Himself went and opened the way for us so that we could come to Him and have everything we need, everything He alone can supply, by suffering and dyind for the sins that kept us from Him. He took away the glass. We just have to go through.

I inspected the areas for more flies and, finding none, shut the window. I got up and left my room, and then I knelt on the floor with gratitude and asked Jesus why He cares enough to do that for me. Why? Why is He interested in what happens to us little, stubborn people? Why did He go to such great lengths and even die to make us His again? The answer is love. It's just who He is. I thanked Him and wrote down my God moment.

While I was writing it down I heard ANOTHER fly next to my window. Can you believe it? It was frustrating. Now, this fly wasn't trying very hard. Maybe he knew that he had missed his opportunity. Maybe he just hadn't noticed the door when it was open. Whatever the case, he is the man who, at the end of the age, missed his chance to be with Jesus. Can you imagine anything sadder? Can you imagine not getting to soar around outside and smell the flowers and feel the sunshine on your wings? Can you imagine knowing that the chance was there and you missed it?

For that poor fly the door was closed. But for us it is still very much open. Will you go through while it's still open? I hope you will. Once you've gone through the door to freedom, you'll never go back.

John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"