Finding Another Door.
Yep, we join the ranks of those of you who have had a tree fall on your house. You kind of go through the stages of grief –denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance – and maybe a little PTSD too, whenever you hear a boom or heavy rain again. And you find yourself saying that familiar refrain of those lucky enough to say it, “We are blessed, no one was hurt, it can all be taken care of/rebuilt.”
But my daughter, Emma, taught me another lesson as she remarked after seeing the damage for the first time, “Wow! I guess we’ll just have to find another door to use.” With that ability to dial down from all the emotion and get to the root of the immediate problem, she brought laughter, levity, and a whole lot of wisdom.
How many times have you found yourself stopped in your tracks by illness, a death, a divorce, losing a job, or any of the detours that life can send our way? We are devastated, angry, remorseful, anxious and may just want to stop all forward motion. We might even need to sit in that dark spot for a while and feel the loss of what was until we can turn to see what can be.
Kids experience disappointments, devastation, and roadblocks too. They also get stuck in the muck and don’t always know how to move through it, how to turn and "find another door." We need hope for that. Hope propels us onward into the unknown and gives us courage to try something else. Our hope is born of the knowledge that we are not alone in the dark. That Jesus is with us always. That the Holy Spirit dwells within us in good times and bad. That God holds us in the palm of Her hand.
There is great comfort in being reminded of this eternal truth. We start to see the angels that stayed with Jesus in the wilderness. We notice the Holy Spirit working through the people that love us through our disasters. We feel God’s presence as we turn to find another door to walk through.
