Enter the Narrow Gate

Just when I thought the pollen season was over, there it was again! Not as thick and yellow as earlier in the spring however there was a light dusting of it on the pond. The pattern it created reminded me of one of those simple, circular mazes that you might see in the newspaper or a children’s magazine. The object being to find the way out in one continuous path. The image didn’t last long for once the wind blew across the pond’s surface the movement of the water created a different pattern. That was all right, God had already planted a thought in my brain.

Life is a maze, rarely if ever, completed in a continuous forward movement. More often than not, there are wrong turns, reverse moves and U turns. This applies to our spiritual life as well. We know from the scriptures that the right path is narrow and few find it. “Go in through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to destruction is broad and the road wide, so many people enter through it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

We have a choice to make in life, one that will lead to destruction or eternal life with our Creator. God’s goodness and mercy is what leads one through that narrow gate, but what happens once inside the gate on the difficult road? It is not a cakewalk, and although we make the choice to walk through the narrow gate we take each subsequent step in faith.

Only because Jesus died on the cross for all sinners are we able to walk it daily in faith.

What if, like a maze on paper, we choose a dead end or a path that leads us back to the beginning? What if we take a misstep on the road, get sidetracked? We need only to ask forgiveness for making the wrong choice or bad decision. God’s Word tells us that He will forgive confessed sin. 1 John 1:9 says this, “But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong.”

Go ahead, step through the narrow gate, daily do your best to not have to make a U-turn but know and believe that if you do, Jesus pleads our case if we will only confess it and repent.

Life can be a maze but we have a Shepherd to lead us down the pathway.