JUST A MOMENT: THE DOORS BEFORE US
Today I found myself standing in front of a row of brightly colored doors.
Each one painted a different color.
Each one part of a rainbow.
The sign across these brightly colored doors read:
“GOD’S DOORS ARE OPEN TO ALL”
But what caught my attention wasn’t the WORDS. . ..
It was the doors.
Some had doorknobs.
Some didn’t.
And the longer I looked, the more I realized I wasn’t looking at doors at all.
I was looking at people.
Some people will see those doors and think they cross a line.
Others will say they walk a very fine line.
Still others will ask, “What line?”
And many won’t bother with the lines at all.
They’ve spent their lives turning lines into circles.
Circles wide enough for everyone.
I’ve been thinking about that.
How much of our lives are spent drawing lines.
Lines between right and wrong.
Us and them.
Believer and unbeliever.
Certain and uncertain.
Accepted and rejected.
Included and excluded.
Yet when I look around, I notice something interesting.
The people who have made the greatest difference in my life are rarely the people who drew the clearest lines.
They’re the people who created the widest circles.
The people who made room.
Room for questions.
Room for disagreement.
Room for doubt.
Room for faith.
Room for stories that looked nothing like their own.
Perhaps that’s why those doors stayed with me.
Some had knobs.
Some didn’t.
Maybe because not everyone enters life the same way.
Some walk through doors confidently.
Others stand in the doorway wondering if they belong.
Some arrive carrying certainty.
Others arrive carrying questions.
Some come with faith.
Others come with wounds.
Some come with convictions.
Others come simply hoping not to be turned away.
The truth is, every one of us is looking for a place where we can be fully seen and still welcomed.
A place where we don’t have to hide parts of ourselves at the threshold.
A place where curiosity is not a threat.
A place where kindness matters more than labels.
A place where being different isn’t the same thing as being distant.
Maybe that’s what those colorful doors were trying to say.
Not that everyone is the same.
Not that every belief is identical.
Not that differences disappear.
But that our shared humanity is larger than many of the lines we draw.
The world already has plenty of walls.
Perhaps what it needs is more doors.
And perhaps the most important doors are the ones we become for one another.
The ones that quietly say:
“You are welcome here.”
Not because we agree on everything.
Not because we see the world exactly the same way.
But because every person deserves the dignity of being received as a fellow traveler on the journey.
And that’s a door worth opening.
UHHHHHHHHH. . .YOUR TURN
(NO PUN INTENDED. . .Well, maybe a little)