When I opened the door of the house to go into the garage, I was startled to be hit in the face with bright light and cold air. Then I realized the garage door had been open all night. Another shiver moved from my spine to my brain as I comprehended that some meandering marauder could have just walked in during the night and stolen my peanut butter and grape jelly. I would not have even noticed until I got hungry. I distinctly remember closing the door the night before when I turned off the lights as my routine for ending the day. I saw the door start going down and watched until it slowed down just before meeting the floor. How did it go back up?
I lowered the door and stood there to see what would happen. The door got two inches from the floor and then reversed. I pushed the button again and scurried back to the door to add my push to help it shut. The door reversed despite my superior strength.
Going back down to the door, I pushed really hard several times. While in the up position, something needed to be adjusted, but there was no change.
The button was pushed one more time. The scurry was made, and just before the door would turn, I kicked it and uttered, “Stupid door!” That didn’t help either, but I felt a little better.
Finally, in desperation, I went to the door’s owner’s manual. I followed all the troubleshooting steps twice, but the door would not stay down. I checked the alignment of the safety beam lights. They were fine. I was frustrated. My next move was to disconnect the door from the trolly and begin opening and closing the door the old-fashioned way: by arm strength.
That was when I noticed a small collection of spider webs along the bottom lip of the door and several dead grandaddy longlegs caught in them. I found and used a broom to clean the webs from the door. The whole time the webs were being removed, I thought, ” There is no way these tinny secretions of an insect could fowl up an advanced modern garage door.”
Back at the top of the steps, I punched the button. The door began its normal journey to the closed position. This time, it went all the way down, and I thought I heard a sigh from the motor as it finally got to rest its weary armature.
Spider webs! Almost transparent spider webs. That’s all it took to breach the security of my domicile. How could that be? It is beyond my pay grade, but the evidence was undeniable.
When life feels a little out of sync, or there is a feeling of separation from God or the “good” He pronounced over life, I don’t always know it at first—or at least notice the vacuum. But at some point, I will open my life’s garage door, get hit in the face with the cold air of reality, and recognize I have been tucked away in my life routine, unaware that I was vulnerable.
I scoured my life, looking for what happened and what could be the cause. Seldom, if ever, is the reason a major moral or ethical issue. The Divine announcement and judgment are persistent and insistent when that is the case.
The culprit is almost always a glob of old spiderwebs lingering from the past. They are nearly transparent; no one thinks about them but me. An appropriate confession has been made, and forgiveness has been granted, but the disgusting memories of nasty decisions linger under the bottom of the door.
The solution to my feelings of vulnerability is to grab hold of the broom of my accumulation of Biblical knowledge and apply the effort to sweep the old nasties away in a transparent conversation with the Holy Spirit before the Father.
Feelings of vulnerability are there for a reason. For the Believer, those feelings remind us how secure we are in Jesus. For the believer, those feelings are indeed the announcement that life is not Life; therefore, death is an authentic experience in living and at the conclusion of living.
“A wise person’s good sense protects him, but a fool’s lack of sense leaves him vulnerable. Ecclesiastes 10:3 (New English Translation)
Here is how most translations present this verse; “A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left.” (New American Standard Bible)
Do not confuse this Biblical axiom with a political statement about conservatives vs. liberals. The verse contrasts “my way” with “God’s way, right and wrong.” It correctly shows that God should be the source of our affirmations and affiliations.
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Ecclesiastes/10/type/nasb
photo – From a series of photos I took a few years back in a field near our house. I believe it was an old Buick.
Baldwin Heirlooms 