Door

Would you believe, I don't have very many "door" pictures on my phone. So today you're getting a photo of something I found next to my door yesterday morning, this lovely green frog.

When I searched for "door" among the pictures on my phone, I got nothing. But when I searched for "door" in the Bible ... oh, my. There are a lot of doors in there! Even before I started searching, several verses popped into my head. "Knock, and the door will be opened until you," I thought to myself. "To the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

And then there is that memorable image from the Cain/Abel story in Genesis, where we learn that "sin is crouching at the door." Flip over to James, and you'll find that "the Judge is standing at the door."

Another "door" verse that came to mind is from Revelation 3:20: "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

And I can't think of that verse without thinking of those in John 10:

"But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep." (John 10:2-4, 7)

I wrote about the sheep hearing His voice a while back, here. I just love the image of Jesus waiting, calling to us, bringing us to Him.

Finally, there is the second chapter of Hosea. Hosea has just prophesied lots of bad things to happen to Israel because of its disobedience (its "whoring"), but then there is this lovely image of God's mercy:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

    and bring her into the wilderness,

    and speak tenderly to her.

And there I will give her her vineyards

    and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. (Hosea 2:14-15)

"Achor" means "trouble." We first see the "Valley of Achor" in Judges, when Achan steals some "devoted things" and brings a heap of trouble onto Israel for it. He eventually admits to Joshua what he's done, and they stone him to death. I hate reading about stoning, or any kind of capital punishment, but apparently God's anger turned away from the Israelites after this, and they named the place the Valley of Achor, or the Valley of Trouble. Years later, in Hosea, God says he will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

A door as a thing of hope. A door as a welcome. A door as a place of receiving. A door as a place where things happen. A door as Christ, and Christ as a door, the door, through which we find hope in our valleys of trouble.