Can you imagine, locking your child out of your house, indefinitely?

Even though your child knocks, cries and begs, you say nothing and seemingly ignore her plea?

Now imagine the locked door is made of one way mirrored glass. You can see out but your child can not see in. So now all the while your child is begging for mercy, you watch, in silence.

You watch year after year, as your child withers under the weight of earths wrath. She claws and begs you to protect her from the storms, the wild, the evil of the dark world. She’s starving and desperately needs you to nourish her and quench her rabid thirst. And yet, you do nothing.

Eventually, your child stops begging, and sets to find means of survival independent of your parental guidance. Out of desperation, she hopes that if she accomplishes good works, she will win your favor and eventually admittance into your home.

Deed after deed she completes with the sole objective of finally going home, settled deep into the recesses of her mind. She sees others in the same desperate situation she too is in, rejected, homeless and orphaned. So she runs to their rescue. taking comfort in knowing that she is not the only one. Feeling the need to help, she rallies resources and despite the odds, manages to clothes them, feed them and nourish their spirits with unconditional love. Years pass…

Again she knocks, and respectfully requests to enter your house. She details all the good works she has done to benefit the welfare of others. She asks, “are you proud of me? Am I worthy?”. Still no reply…..

Discouraged, anguished and exhausted, she sets out once more but to where and to do what, she does not know. She walks mile after mile until one day, she hears her father say, “Come home my child”. Still weak from a lifetime of struggle, she stumbles to her feet and reaches for home, finally!

Once allowed inside, she says “father oh father, why did you not let me in when I so desperately needed you? Why did you not answer my cries?”

Her gentle and sweet father explained “had I let you in, and not allowed you to suffer, you never would have noticed the others like you. You never would have reached out to them with knowing hands and cared for the least of these. Yet because you did, you became my hands and feet. You honored me through your anguished heart. I always intended to unlock the door for you. I had promised long before you came to be, that my house would one day be yours. But your life had a purpose to be fulfilled first and so it is, welcome home my child”.

I cant imagine the pain a parent would endure to watch idly as their child suffers. God did this when he offered his only begotten son to be our savior and he does a million times over, every second of every day as human kind suffers at the hands of free will and the enemy.

Thank you Lord for letting us endure trials with eternal consequences. For letting us learn through suffering. For showing us your heart in our anguish. Thank you for teaching the most difficult of life's lessons so that we can see clearly your will.

Isaiah 35:10
and those the LORD has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.