D is for DOOR

There are some doors you just want to walk through, others you just wish they'd open and a few you just want to stay shut. And then there are doors that you know will open but the waiting is the hard bit and you just don't know whether you want to see that handle move or not. I've stood on either side of many doors so I guess I see it from both perspectives.

I remember sitting in the staff room waiting for my first job interview and trying to make conversation with the other applicants but knowing that everyone had their subconscious eyes on the door handle. There was always a smiling face that greeted you in those situations when the door finally opened and equally a room of similar visages when the next door to the interview was pulled back. It was in the days when you knew that night if you had got the job so after the formalities and the questions, it was back to the staff room and again the waiting for the next time the door would open and the smiling assassin who would kill the hopes of all the applicants bar one.

It was much the same in the dentist or doctor waiting room, sitting around until a assistant or nurse smiled in your direction that false smile of assurance that you were next for the chair and in truth you could have sat all afternoon in the waiting room and hoped the door never opened but again it was inevitable and so it was better to get it over. Just like waiting outside the teacher's study, going over in your head a thousand times what excuse you were going to make for being there and finding that your story changed every time. But sometimes it was you on the other side of the door and when it knocked a guessing game began inside your head as to who might be waiting there. But at home we could often tell who might be there because of the door involved. Local neighbours never came to the front door and although most knocked when they arrived at the back door, it was usually only a rap as they opened the door, just to let us know they were on their way into the house. Strangers or infrequent callers always rapped on the front door knocker but less people made it beyond this door than through the rear entrance. These days, at our own house, nobody visits by way of the back door and often interviews are conducted on the steps outside the front entrance, depending of course, on the nature of the call.

Years ago, at home, we had the unusual sight of a door at the top of the staircase, that dad closed and locked when he was retiring for the night. I suppose an element of safety and security was involved and it certainly was necessary later on when my grandmother used to 'wander' from her bedroom and could easily have fallen down the stairs if not for the door barring her way. My other grandmother also had a door that I remember well, down at the basement of her house, that led into a dark cellar type room. It was a eerie experience and because the door had a couple of frosted glass panels, all sorts of shadows could be seen lurking beyond the door and for many years, I never ventured to open it. When I did, I discovered little more than an old bicycle, an unused sink and a toilet in one corner.

Jesus makes many references to the door during His time on earth, most notably when He says 'Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.' But He also urges us to 'Make every effort to enter through the narrow door' for there will be a time when the door will no longer be open.

On Thursday morning, I sat at my desk in the classroom as the wind howled and a few stray flakes of snow drifted downwards. It was only 8:30 but in those final moments of getting organised for the day ahead and with the children due to arrive in ten minutes, I heard the faintest knocking at the door and as I waited, it continued and became more incessant. I knew it was a young lad who invariably arrives early and waits around outside but the coldness of the morning and the lights within had tested his patience to the limit. For a while, I ignored it and finished off my last pieces of preparation yet when I returned to the room, the knocking was now continuous and more perisistant than before. With a last glance at the clock, I relented and let him in. And that reminds me of a verse I learned as a child in Revelation chapter 3 which says 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' Jesus is at the door but how long are we going to keep Him waiting?