The Door

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. Matthew 10:14

Several years ago I saw the hand reach out and snatch the welcome mat inside. I had spent a long time loving that place, the people and their children. I had shared generously of my goods and my gifts. But I still went back.

Recently, I heard the door slam shut when I came near. They didn’t want my brand of ministry, I guess. They didn’t like the friends I chose to honor because of my friends’ love for Christ, and they didn’t care if I stayed away.

The last day there, with a loud click, I heard the bolt slide into place. I was not welcome to return. That seems to be the will of the people.

Yet, with all that said, I know that God can open closed doors. To the angel of the church of Philadelphia, John the Apostle wrote, What He opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. Revelation 3:7.

So, I heard the door shut. I find myself in the uncomfortable position of waiting to see whether God leads for me to “shake the dust off my feet,” or whether he opens a door NO ONE can shut. In either case I must exercise faith. I stand waiting.