The Little Door

"The one who offers thanksgiving honors me, and establishes a way by which I may show him the salvation of God!” (Psalm 50:23).

Gratitude is one way God brings salvation to us; the means by which He lavishes upon us all he has in mind for us. 

I forget to say, "Thank you" to the One who has graciously given me "all things richly to enjoy”; I’m much too busy complaining about what I don’t have in sequester, in consequence of which I fail to enter into the fullness of God. In fact, if I read Romans 1 right, an ungrateful heart can lead me away from God and into all sorts of god-awful behavior (Romans 1:21-23).

I picked up a copy of Alice in Wonderland the other day and read this: "Alice came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and peeked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw."

Gratitude is the "little door” that leads us into a fabulous place, the means by which we enter into a more complete, intimate relationship with God, the way by which we “more of His saving fullness see; more of His love for you and me.”

"Alice tried to squeeze through the little door, but she was much too large." Humble gratitude is the only way in. You have to become very small. (“Go ask Alice, when she's  ten feet tall.”) 

Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden. —T.S. Eliot

David Roper