The Other Side of the Door

by Evelyn Donnell

A couple of days ago I was upstairs in my little hide-a-way office writing checks to pay October bills and mulling over charitable donation requests.

Lori our big dog leaped up from her stretched out sleeping position, vigorously banking at me and running to the head of the stairs. Downstairs someone was knocking at the outside door. 

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” I yelled as I descended. Lori was well ahead of me, barking the same message.

Glancing out the door window I saw Dale, our neighbor of eighteen years standing outside. -We are not intimate friends, but we are good neighbors. When winter snows come, Dale rides over on his motorized snow plow and plows us out. When Dale and his wire Sybil are gone RVing we gather in their mail and newspapers, keeping them dry and safe until they return.

Over a year ago when Dale was diagnosed with cancer he came over and requested we “kinda look after the place” when he and Sybil were in Boise for his surgery. He had unexpected tears in his eyes when I asked him if I could pray for him. He hugged and thanked me when I finished. I asked Dale if he knew Jesus personally as his Lord and Savior?” He answered, “ Yes, I do, even went to Sunday School a few times when I was a kid. - I’m just not interest in going to church with all those hymn singing Christians!”

Now a year later, he was at my door again. Two big tumors had showed up and he and Sybil would be on their way to Boise again. “Would you folks look after the mail and newspapers ‘till we’re back?”

I said, “Sure Dale, if you’ll let me pray for you again.” “Remember God gave you a whole good year “Cancer free”. You and Sybil got to go camping, take your trip to Hawaii and hold your first great grandson in your arms. Dale struggled to repress tears, but he had a whole different look on his face than when he first told me of his cancer a year ago. This time he grasped both my hands as we prayed, me aloud, him silently. When we finished, I saw hope in his eyes.

As 90 years old I some times ask God, “Why am I still here? - other than to take care of my recalcitrant, yet very lovable husband of 67 years? Isn’t it time for me to be writing, teaching, and drawing pictures and painting murals on the walls of my new home in Heaven?”

Then the doorbell rings. Faithful Lori barks, there’s my answer, standing on the other side of the door!

This word is meant for all true Believers in Jesus Christ.

WE ARE COMING FULL CIRCLE, BACK TO EDEN, WHERE WE BEGAN

This is a different time, a new time, in the long history of mankind.  It comes at the culmination of history as well know it and have experienced it throughout the ages. What is the difference now? What has changed?

The gate to the Garden of Eden is open, wide open. The angel with the flaming sword has been told to “Stand aside” and let God’s people in to reclaim the place where everything began.

Men and women, after endless years of “Rebellion-Repentance, Suffering-Overcoming, Losing-Winning, Accepting Jesus-Rejecting him as Lord and Savior; after expulsion and wandering far away from Eden, at long last we are invited to return. We are coming full circle, back to Eden.

Since the gate is wide open we can enter, or leave at will. But Satan and his fallen angels can do the same thing. However it is not as easy to entice and deceive people as it was in the beginning.  Satan is no longer dealing with innocent, untrained, gullible civilians. Many of God’s people are “seasoned warriors”. God’s Spirit lives in each one of us. We have the full armor of God to protect us, some have learned to use the sharp, lethal sword of the Word of God.

Battles with our adversaries are no longer sneaky, disguised enemies jumping out from behind trees and bushes, lurking in the dark holes of space. We can recognize Satan’s tactics. We walk with the our Commander in Chief, his light surrounds us, dispelling darkness. We can see his scars imprinted at Calvary when he gave his life for each one of us so we too can be resurrected from eternal death into eternal life with Father God.

Our God is allowing the final battles to be fought right in the beautiful garden of Eden that He created for us so long ago. Sometimes the smell, the noise, the heat of the battles we are engaged in, are bloody and frightening. But the victory is foretold in Revelations the end is clearly in sight. We residents of Eden live by an open gate. We go in and out to work in the world. We take fruits and seeds of Eden to scatter all over the world. We are to scatter them in our own neighborhoods as well. If anyone asks, we are to show them the way to Eden and tell them the gate is “wide open”! Come and see!