Locked Outside

The door had not even clicked shut before I glanced at Asherel and said, "Oops." And it was not cold, but a little chilly, and my sweater was still tantalizingly inside sprawled across the chair.... behind the now locked door.

"I forgot the key," I say.
We go to our neighbor's house, who has an extra key to our house, but she is not home. Of course, Asherel then starts listing all the clever devices they now make that you can use to hide a key outside. Every time I look at magazines and see the fake rocks with the hidden key chamber, I always think ,"This is for losers."

And now, here I am, a loser, without a fake rock and a key to my locked front door. This is the most troubling aspect of a "holier than thou" attitude. Sometimes you are not.

So we put our neurons to good use. First check all doors to be sure they are indeed locked. They are.
"I could pick it with a paper clip," says Asherel. I peer at her.
"And when did you acquire burglary skills? Besides the paper clip is inside and we are outside."

We walk to the back yard and look in the windows.
"You are going to have to crawl in through the dog door," I order my burglar friend.
The dog door is approximately 1'x2'. Lucky can squish through it by sucking in his breath and crunching his bones together. And he usually has to wait til he has an empty stomach.

"I can't fit through there!" she complains.
"How do you know?" I ask.
She giggles at this point, and I understand that apparently at the same time she was perfecting her lock picking skills she was also crawling in dog doors.
"Try!" I moan, "I would try, but I am injured!"
And if I wasn't injured, I would be if I were to try squishing through that little dog door.

My accomplice grudgingly tries but gives only a half hearted effort and backs out when the skin begins ripping off her back. Wimp.

Fortunately, we do find another neighbor who is home, and she has an extra key to our house too. We pop back inside, where I of course blame Asherel for letting me forget the key and warn her she is never to let me forget the key again.

And I begin thinking about doors locked to us, when everything we need and want is on the other side- essential things like food, water, and Wii Fit. We can pound on the door and long for all those critical things til our hands are bloody, but the door is not opening til we find the key.
There is a door that is never locked to us, however. The key is available to anyone who wants entrance. The price of admittance is to believe in the One who opens the door. And it swings wide open on hinges of love; no one has to wonder if they will fit. They will.

Matthew 7:7-8
⁷"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.