“I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it…”—Revelation 3:8 (NKJV)
I grew up in Yakima, Washington, with a large extended family. We cousins were as close as brothers and sisters; we lived in the same neighborhood, attended the same church and school, and often vacationed together.
After I married Wayne and moved to Kent, just a few miles south of Seattle, my cousin David, who was closest to me in age, developed leukemia. His doctors sent him to Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Although I didn’t often venture into the big city, I was determined to visit David.
Somehow I ended up at Swedish Hospital, which is connected to Fred Hutchinson by a sky bridge. Lost and confused, I wandered down a number of corridors without finding the bridge. Finally, I stopped a doctor and asked if he could give me directions.
“It’s simple,” he assured me. “All you need to do is walk down this hallway, take the first right and walk through the door marked ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE.” Those directions did more than show me the way to my cousin.
Somehow, that experience has given me the courage to walk through other doors: my dyslexia that I feared would keep me from working; my terror of speaking in front of people. God has met me at the door marked ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE and held it open for me.
Father God, thank You for the obstacles You send into my life that have taught me to rely only on You.
