The Healing Properties of Doors & Doorways

Have you ever paused and looked around and truly taken note of how many gifts come from trees? Consider this an invitation. Really! Take a moment and walk around. Yes right now! Notice how many trees participate in your life. Picture frames, furniture, cutting boards, grandfather clocks, baskets, wooden utensils, paper towels, toilet paper, maple syrup, chocolate, apples and oranges to name just a few. And what about car wax, chewing gum, dyes, wine corks, spices, medicines, stir sticks, latex rubber gloves and birdhouses? Just think, we'd be here for weeks if we had to list everything a tree provides.  But what about doors? Yes, examine the doors you walk through. How many are made from trees, and if not the door itself, how many doorways are lined with wooden framing or attached to wooden beams? There is something special about doors and doorways when it comes to healing. What doors have you had to close that were tremendously painful? What doorways have you been invited to walk through unexpectedly? What doors have led to adventure? What doorways still scare you? Now there are literal doorways and figurative doorways, and both have significant healing properties. There is a stunning piece of artwork titled "The Light of the World" and you can view it below. It is a work of art from the 1800's painted by William Holman Hunt. It's based on Revelations 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter their house and dine with them and they with me."  I invite you to a little 'visio divina' - essentially praying with your eyes. Take a moment and meditate with this image... What speaks to you? What repels you? What draws your attention? What's on the other side of the door? What is being said to you? Is there an invitation? Does this image connect with your past, present or possible future?  Or is there no connection at all? After taking as much time as you need or want... let's notice a few more things together. Do you see that there is no door handle? This door can only be opened from the inside or did the handle fall off? What about the weeds in front of the door? How long since it's been opened or does the landscape crew happen to be on vacation? What about This Holy Visitor coming at night? Or is it dawn? What about the trees in the backdrop? How do they fit in? Do they wish they too were a door or glad and relieved that they are not? What about the kings crown intermingled with the crown of thorns. Or the 12 diadem on the cloak? What is in Jesus' hand? And why does the "Light of the World" carry a lantern? Whether we acknowledge it or not, we've all crossed another threshold, the threshold of a New Year. With it will come many doors and doorways. The invitation is to notice. Notice the doors you take for granted. Notice the doors that have opened and closed to bring you to this place, right here, right now. Notice what doorways might lead to greater healing or opportunity. Notice. Remember Matthew 5:14-16:  "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."  What is knocking on your door? What doors do you need to knock on?  Blessings on your doors and doorways in 2021!