The Little Door
"The one who offers thanksgiving honors Me, and establishes a way by which I may show him the salvation of God!” (Psalm 50:23).
Gratitude is the way God brings salvation to us; the means by which He lavishes upon us all the good stuff He has in mind for us.
Rarely
do we stop in humble acquiescence to say "Thank you" to the One who
gave us "all things richly to enjoy”; we’re much too busy complaining
about what we don’t have, in consequence of which we fail to enter into
the fullness of God. In fact, if I read Romans 1 right, an ungrateful
heart can lead us away from God and into all sorts of god-awful behavior (Romans 1:21-23).
I picked up a copy of Alice in Wonderland a few days ago and
read this: "Alice came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before,
and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the
little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not
much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage
into the loveliest garden you ever saw."
Gratitude
is the "little door” that leads us into a fabulous place, the means by
which we enter into a more complete, intimate relationship with God, the
way by which we “more of His saving fullness see; more of His love for
you and me.”
"Alice
tried to squeeze through the little door, but she was much too large."
Humble gratitude is the only way in. (“Go ask Alice, when she's ten
feet tall.”) You have to become very small.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. —T.S. Eliot
David Roper
No comments:
Post a Comment