Who's that knocking?

Let’s say that you have a very special friend, one for whom, if necessary, you’d give your life. One day you go to his house and knock on the door. After a long pause the door opens and there he is, staring at you as if he’d never seen you before. Then without a word, he slams the door in your face. How would you feel? You’d be shaking your head in disbelief!
       So how do you think Jesus felt when he came to the people he had created ion his own image – and have them slam the door in his face. John records what Jesus said about it: “I came to my own creation, but the people I had created would not receive me” (John 1.11). There is something very wrong with this picture. Man, who is totally dependent on God for every breath he takes, looks his Creator in the eye and pretends he doesn’t know him.
       But why do I say, “pretend?” It’s very simple: Way down deep in his soul man is fully aware of the One who stands at the door of his heart. He knows that he was the one who left the Garden and that now the One he deserted is asking him to come home. How confused is man who is unable to understand why his choice for personal satisfaction has taken him in exactly the wrong direction. Sin is a cunning master of deceit who continues to ensnare us  with our own desires.
       But the door-slammed-in-the-face episode is only part of the larger story. Jesus goes on to tell us that it doesn’t have to end that way. Our Savior was shut out by many, but there are those who did receive him. Of those he says, “To as many as do receive me . . . I give the privilege of becoming sons of God” (v. 12). Such incredible love is hard to imagine. Just think – He made us, he comes to us in love, we are often slow to responds, so he waits quietly for us to open the door that leads to our heart. The secular mind cannot grasp a love like that. Yes, Jesus cares. We sing, “O yes, he cares, I know he cares, his heart is touched with my grief.” Who is able to fathom the depths of Christ’s love. We slammed the door in his face, but he responded by stretching out his arms of love to welcome us home Absolutely incomprehensible.
       So what does it means for us to be the children of God? Are we simply a bit more sanctimonious than others, or do we by our life-style provide living evidence of the transforming power of God’s love? What a privilege to walk and talk with him throughout the day. We are now members of a family that had no beginning and will last forever. In this brief moment we call time, we have the opportunity to let him change us into sons and daughters who look a lot like him. After all, he is our brother. The process may be a little slow, but he was patient in finding us, and will be until the task is complete.