Pending Contact Request
It was two years ago. Our oldest son was in the hospital. I prayed for God heal him from the brain cancer that eroded his mind. I lived for writing him each day, and talking to him on the phone, he was too far away for me to leave my husband who lived with Dementia, to visit our son, Dan.
One phone visit, he talked about visiting with Skype. Immediately I entered his name on my Skype to be ready. The other day I prepared to visit on Skype and saw his picture with these three words – Pending Contact Request.
And I remembered! Everything. Those sad days, the ending of Dan’s life. The long trip to bury him, and all the memories that happened on the day he was buried and the trip home.
For awhile I couldn’t bear to see his picture…on the wall. The pain of his death was unbearable. Then suddenly, those three words under his picture on the Contact Page of Skype hit me. Suddenly memories of his life cascaded through my mind – from the time he was born, his marriage, the years of being a father. I saw a change in his life from a brash teen to a loving, kind and patient father.
Suddenly I saw Jesus, standing at the door of our hearts waiting to enter into a new life, to make contact. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3:20-22
Will I ever erase the contact on Skype to our son? Unlikely. As I read the verses from Revelation, I realize anew how precious is the opportunity to hear the knock at my heart’s door. I am amazed at the tenacity and love that motivates the continued knocking. Am I listening?
As I read Psalm 23:6, the other day, I realize why Jesus continues to knock. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. This Psalm is often read for comfort at funerals. Yet it should be read every day…to remember the unfailing love God and His Son Jesus have for each of us. In the NLT version this unfailing love will pursue us, not for awhile, but all the days of our lives.
“Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins. Isaiah 49:15-16
God will not forget us. He loves us. Forever. Is that important? Yes. When we answer the knock on the door of our hearts, we become His for eternity. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Revelation 21:27
We try to hide our thoughts and deeds from others, but there is someone who knows all about us. We cannot hide from God. King David knew this and expressed it this way in Psalm 139:1-6. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
When I read this, my mind saw our Lord, with needle and thread, hem us into his love, even as my Mom hemmed many a garment. She made sure frayed edges with wear did not appear. When we respond to the Lord’s knock on the door, we no longer are pending in our relationship with God. We are allowing our Lord to keep the edges of our heart from becoming frayed and tattered and torn through living in this world.
Once we have answered the knock on the door of our heart, we have made contact with our Lord and we obey Him and we are His.
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10: 25-30
Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
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