Never Close the Door
by Billie Meadors
Doors. They are entryways, and they are barriers. Doors are swung open to welcome or slammed shut to keep out. Jesus says we have a door where He stands and knocks, waiting to be invited in (Revelation 3:20). What kind of effect do I have on the door of people’s hearts that God puts in my path? That is a question that haunts me, but I’ve learned the importance of never shutting the door on someone who is hard to love.
My oldest sister married David in 1983. In 1991, they divorced. It seems in most cases of divorce, in-laws become outcasts, but this is not always so in our family. David was an unbeliever. He mocked our faith, sometimes harshly and cruelly, but my sister would remind her four defensive sisters, “Never shut the door on an unbeliever.” We wanted to bang him over the head with a door when he pulled typically mean “ex-husband” antics, but we respected her wish. Neither of them ever re-married or even dated, and both stayed actively centered on raising their one son, Paul, although in polarized positions. My sister taught Paul about Jesus while David taught him worldliness. Every Thanksgiving, Christmas or other family gathering, we invited David. I always wondered why he would join us since our values were so opposite, but he never declined the invitation.
On November 18, 2008, my sister and David received the news every parent fears—their only child had tragically died at age 24. I honestly thought David would disconnect from my family, but with every invitation he continued to show up at our gatherings. However, his heart seemed more hardened, and his arsenal was full of new weapons against the God we loved.
In 2012, David was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. He vowed to beat it and relied on “positive energy” from others. Our attempts to speak truth to him were clearly met with a closed door. In early 2014, things took a turn for the worse. He was hospitalized and afterward moved to a nursing home that just happened to be located near my office. He needed to heal from a MRSA infection in his leg.
Twice a week as I would visit David on my lunch hour, I would ask the Holy Spirit to help me recognize if the door to his heart was open, and for the words to speak as I drove. One day he saw me notice a Bible next to his chair and said, “Your sister gave me that decades ago.” I didn’t question how it got there, but I told him how much I loved God’s word. I wrote a few Scripture references to leave with him, saying they were a few of my favorites if he’d like to read them. In the following two months as I continued to visit, sometimes he would suddenly ask a question that I saw as a cracked door to encourage him with God’s word and tell him of God’s love for him. We never seemed, though, to get to that final step for me to present the gospel.
On April 19, 2014, the day before Easter, David died after a drastic turn on Friday. When I heard of his condition, I ran to his side. He didn’t seem to know me, but still I didn’t expect him to be gone so quickly. When he died, I was devastated to think I never got to the final step of asking if he’d like to invite Jesus into his heart. Unbeknownst to me, a male nurse who had subbed in David’s wing a few weeks prior, had befriended him. He visited David often and told us after his death that he had shared the gospel with him two days before that drastic decline, and David had accepted Christ! I can’t describe the tears that flowed knowing that he was with Jesus and his son Paul on Easter morning!
At the beginning of 2020, one of the three things Pastor Rick asked of us was to lead someone to the Lord. First Corinthians 3:6 tells us some people plant seeds, some water seeds, but God makes it grow. The doors we keep open to those He places in our path could be opportunities to prepare a heart to open the door when Jesus knocks. Let’s be good planters and waterers during this unique time. It could very well be God’s growing season.
Author Bio
I’m just a woman on the journey of life who loves God and His word, family, friends, my golden retriever Noble, CRBC and Iced Triple Grande-Two-Pump-Nonfat-No-Whip-Light-Iced-White Chocolate Mochas. If I could have my way, I’d live in the mountains where drinking coffee by a stream is the closest thing to heaven I can imagine!