The knocking sound started firm but soft and it just would not stop.
"What in the world?", I thought to myself. Maybe if I just do not move the person knocking would get the idea that I was not home and just leave.
I looked out the window and spied him on the front porch. He was shaggy and dirty and certainly not someone that I had ever met before. I lived in Granite City, IL at the time and while Granite City was a nice place to live, you did not want to open the door to just anybody.
So he knocked, and I did my best to ignore.
I went to the back of the house so I would not have to listen to the sound of the knocking and after a few brief moments the knocking stopped and I heard a car door slam. I went to the front door and looked out just in time to see a very beat up small blue rusty pickup truck cough to life and drive off around the corner.
I was about to turn around to go back indoors when I saw it sitting in my driveway.
It was a little house. Y'know one of those little plastic pre-fab jobs that kids love and then 6 months later they just pose as a giant lawn obstacle to mow around?
There it was. Sitting in the middle of my driveway and larger than that was the question in my mind of what was this all about?
Who was the homeless looking guy on the porch, and why did he leave a plastic Little Tyke house in my driveway?
My wife and very small son would be coming home soon and this house was in the middle of the driveway so I picked it up and drug it around to the backyard. If he had the wrong address at least it would be safe for him in the backyard, and why not let my son play in it until the bearded mystery man came back for this mistaken drop off?
My son would play in these houses forever every time we went to Toys R Us and I thought he would get a kick out of it.
They arrived home about an hour later and I could hardly wait to see the reaction on my son's face when he saw this new playhouse. I walked him by the hand around the corner of the house and had him close his eyes and I think that i probably was more excited for him to enjoy it than I thought, because his reaction when he opened his eyes killed me.
Nothing.
"Clark", I said, "Buddy, its a house like you always play in at the store!!!"
"Oh cool", he said nonchalantly as he walked up to it and began inspecting the shutters and the little plastic faucet on the sink. "Yep daddy, it finally came today."
WHAT???
"It finally came?" I asked Him. "Buddy did you know this was coming?"
"Yeah daddy, I sure did..." before he could finish I asked him, "Buddy do you know who was bringing this to you?"
"I sure do daddy." He responded very matter of fact. "I asked God to give me this house when i was in the store before and He finally picked today to bring it to me."
Let me just say that I was stunned beyond belief and at that moment I heard another knock deep within my spirit. I looked out through the window of my heart and I saw another homeless looking guy with a scruffy beard and dirty clothes. His hands had wounds on them.
My family and I were about to make a major transition in life and were praying about moving to Mobile, Alabama. We had to sell our home in housing market that had just crashed. No one was buying and it would be difficult to make this move that the Lord was directing us to move.
That is when I opened the door and looked the bearded guy in the eye and heard Him say, "Dan, if I can provide a house for your child because He asked me, why would you think that I could not sell your home in a bad market and help you buy another in a state 11 hours away? I really am that big Loved, and if you will just take the steps that I showed you I will be with you."
I will never forget that conversation that I had with Father in the backyard that day. Our home sold to the people who looked at it after the sixth day being listed on the market.
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 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. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." ~ Revelation 3:19-21
This passage is always used to tell people that God is wanting to enter their hearts for salvation, and while He does, this passage is not speaking to someone who is in need of salvation. This verse is a message from God who is asking those who have already accepted Him to allow Him access to themselves.
So why would people not open the door to Him?
I mean if opening the door to God meant developing a deeper level of relationship with Him, why would anyone in their right mind choose to drown out the knock, go to the "back of the house" or just pretend to not be home?
The benefits of opening the door are absolutely outstanding!
As I think about this I asked myself, "Dan, why do you stand on the other side of doors in your heart that Christ is knocking on?"
Here is where the answer hits us each right between the eyes. It cuts wide and it cuts deep.
We hear the noise and mistake it to be something so far different from what it truly is, an invitation from our creator to know Him better.
We mistake the noise of a knock to be a termination of employment, a doctor's prognosis, or a financial hardship. Maybe the knock on our door comes in the sound of a relationship that falls apart right in front of us, a loved one that leaves, or a change in life that seems to leave us reeling in it's wake.
God's knock is always a point where He calls us to come to the end of our self because until we reach a point where we realize our need for Him we will never reach the potential that He made us to reach.
The "Knocks" of life are painful and it is because of this that we often find ourselves avoiding the doors that we should be opening. We want the knocks to be on our terms. We have the "sound" in place in our mind that we feel we should hear and we are prepared to respond to that sound only. If the "Knock" sounds like a pay raise, a deeper level reached in our marriage or children that always behave with expert decision making ability, then we are ready to run to the door.
It would be no different than opening the door of your house to someone that you know and certainly avoiding opening the door to the knock of someone who looked like a homeless bum.
It is the "Knocks" of God that can seem to literally knock us to the ground that He uses to introduce Himself to us in a deeper level of relationship and it is those "Knocks" that He allows into our life that are in all actuality His calling card.
Each week of my life I have the opportunity to correspond with people who have discovered the "Knock" that seemed to shatter the comfortable silence of their life was the loving desire of a Father who was seeking a relationship with His son or daughter.
The doors provided in life that we beg God to open or close on our behalf require us to see Him for who He truly is, will be, and always has been.
GOD.
What have you been hiding from? What "Knock" have you found yourself avoiding?
What "Knock" has had you pretending not be home over?
Please do not be afraid of the unknown. Please reach out and open the door and what you are going to discover is that the God who created you and placed within your heart the desire for the things that you desire most is ready and willing to show you just how powerful of a role those desires play in His story for you.
Don't run, don't hide, and please do not pretend that you do not hear Him standing at the door and knocking.
Romans 8:28 promises us that all things work together for good. Everything that God allows into our life is going to work out for our ultimate good. The "Knocks" that we try to escape and avoid will only work for our good.
Open the door.
Father is waiting and what He has to show you will have you saying, "I knew it would come, I asked Him for this and He decided today to bring it to me!"
Climbing with you,
~Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment