@ Unsplash.com
I’ve returned home recently from a holiday in a self-catering cottage in Devon. My first challenge on getting there was not finding, but getting into the cottage. Having released the front door key from the key safe (which took almost more brain power than I could muster after the long drive), I put the key into the lock eagerly and tried to turn it. That longed for sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit was so close now.
The lock didn’t look complicated: there was only one long key to use. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as putting the key in the lock and turning it. I discovered, after several failed attempts, that the key had to be put in the lock then pointed slightly upwards in order to engage and allow the door to be opened.
Having sorted that out I was happy to explore my holiday home and have that all important cuppa. Yet, for the entire week of my stay, the key and lock were a constant irritation. Each time I left or returned to the cottage, I had the same problem. The door wouldn’t open unless the key was aligned exactly at what seemed like a counter intuitive angle. I did enjoy my week’s holiday but was glad to get home to a front door with a lock I’m used to.
Do you ever feel that you’d like to move on or do something new in your life, or to go to a deeper level in your spiritual life but that you can’t find the right doors to open?
Even if you do know, or have been shown, what you think is the right door, it’s often a case of finding the right key and then working out how to fit it into the lock so that it will turn and allow you to go in.
I’ve been trying out several keys recently to new opportunities for writing. In each case it’s not been straight forward to get them into position so that I can open the doors. Some have been relatively easy, but others are proving more difficult to use.
Do we keep our faith locked away behind a door sometimes? Is it something which we know is there, but we don’t always want to take out and examine? Do we try to access it using the wrong keys sometimes? Keys which grind in the lock but with which we keep persisting, hoping that we’ll force them to work using our own strength or will? Or is our faith so locked away that the key seems to have rusted and we think it may never work again?
I’ve found that Jesus is the key which never fails. The key which never rusts. We can step aside from our struggles, align our outer lives completely with his will and let the ultimate locksmith guide us through our challenges and open the door to a life of new opportunities. The ‘Jesus’ key won’t rust or break in the lock, and we can ask for a few drops of his soothing oil whenever we feel things tightening around
I love this photo which shows some intricate and beautiful keys. The most prominent is the one incorporating the word “love”: the Jesus key, the key to everything. Do you have that one on your keyring?
