December 12: The Door
“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”
“Open, close, open, close…” This game can and will go on for a long time in our house with a busy toddler exploring and testing every kind of available door. Cupboard doors, kitchen doors, oven doors, sliding doors… from a very young age we seem to inherently know the fact that doors lead us somewhere, or provide us access to something that was previously unattainable. Jesus tells us, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). He is speaking here about sheep in a sheepfold, explaining how there is only one gate or door for the flock to enter safely inside. Anyone who is seen to be jumping the fence or climbing in another way would simply be a thief or a robber coming to harm the sheep, not the trusted shepherd or gatekeeper standing guard. Likewise, Jesus is the only way by which we can enter God’s family and become part of the flock. Our world tries to sell us so many other ways to find peace, contentment, joy and life in everything else when all we truly need is Christ.
Do we view Jesus as our door? Or are we listening to other voices, teachings, or people that try to convince us otherwise? Jesus promises us that through Him, we will “have life and have it abundantly” (v10). Only He can satisfy our wandering hearts and give us an abundant, overflowing joy that prevails even through the toughest challenges of life. He is the Good Shepherd who leads us out to rich pasture and is the ultimate Door that swings wide to welcome us in. An old hymn “Come Thou Fount” put it beautifully: “Jesus sought me as a stranger wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood”. He has come to give us life and life to the full.
What a wonderful promise.