John 10:7-10

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the Gate…”

I’ve heard the analogy that research is like using a flashlight to find a needle in an evergreen forest with freshly fallen snow at midnight. The point being that the world around us is beautiful and complex, and we barely have the tools to appreciate it, let alone understand it.

Like many others, I came to Switzerland as a student, taking this time in my life as an opportunity to live and learn in a new country, but also to do something meaningful that my parents and I would be proud to tell other people about. As I laze away my days as a PhD student swimming in a vast sea of literature, I often wonder how I will ever find something new and significant enough to publish. What do small discoveries matter? How are these things relevant to daily life? I also wonder where this is leading me. What job does this research lead me to? What kind of success is important? I’m sure that God is taking this time in my life to equip me for something in the future, but I’m not yet sure where this path leads.

Everyday we make decisions to search out and follow new, enticing opportunities in the hope that we can find something that we can feel useful doing, but it’s important not to forget the opportunity that’s always there. This passage in John reminds us that there’s an open door to God, the one who knows where our path leads and knows how we fit into his perfect plan. We don’t need to search for this opportunity because it’s already there. Jesus’s death and resurrection is the doorway to God; the entrance to eternity in God’s presence. The opportunity to rest in God and find peace with where your path leads is right here in front of you. Even if we have already taken the step to believe in him, and opened that door, we can’t forget that it’s there, always ready to be stepped through.

I rest assured knowing that God knows my path and loves me regardless of the mistakes I make along the way. I wonder if it gives him a bit of a giggle to watch me bumble around with my bad flashlight in the snow looking for some small detail about his creation that I can publish.

Prayer

God, I thank you for loving us enough to send us Jesus, the doorway to our salvation and life with you. I pray that we be reminded daily of that open invitation so that we can live and rest in your peace. Amen.