Something worthwhile

She knocked at the door yesterday morning. I mean 'knocked'. She didn't ring the doorbell; she opened the screen door and knocked at the door. This was such a strange sound that I went to the door to see exactly what was happening. Not many people knock at the door these days (at least not these doors). That's what the door bell is there for.

It was just after 8:30 am, and she wanted to know how she would go about making arrangements for her children to be baptised.

God appears in all kinds of ways, and sometimes we have the eyes to see what's really going on. We get all kinds of people coming to our doors. Most of them are looking for attention, but on the odd occasion you meet one who sincerely is looking for help. She stayed long enough to fill out some registration forms and to ask some more questions of the secretary. After she left, I found out that the questions she wanted to ask were a bit deeper than just taking care of her kids.

What does it take to come knocking at the door of a place such as this? It helps every now and then to put myself in the shoes of those who come searching. Only then can I even begin to fathom the questions that preoccupy some people's hearts, the worry and concern that they might be rejected rather than accepted. What courage it must take to knock at the door.

This is a lesson that people on the other side of the door need to learn too. How do we welcome those who come seeking? Do we make things easy for those who are already uncomfortable, or do we heap up other challenges on their shoulders?

Meeting strangers and risking the possibility of listening to their stories is risky business at times, but it is the starting point that might just introduce us to the ones in need who have struggled for who knows how long with the guilt of their situations. When we realize that none of us in truly in charge of the encounters that happen, perhaps we will begin to understand that sometimes the strangers knocking at our doors are the ones who end up teaching the most valuable lessons.