The Cracked Acorn: Doors

Weekends and holidays are the prime times for advertisers to stuff flyers into the daily newspapers, adding to what I call the “pulp padding.”  You can’t escape a peek at the ones that are the home suppliers.  I like the nice color photos of doors of all types.  Some of these beauties can stop a vacation to Disney World.  If one is installed for your front door, I am sure you will fall down and worship its varnished wood and stained floral glass panels.  Fingerprints will never mar its glossy sheen, and you will hang a sign on its brilliant brass knob requesting everyone to come to the humble back door.  A door of this quality could even go as a Mother’s Day gift; think about it!

The word door may have entered our language through an English family name, Dore, meaning the entrance to a narrow valley. We use the word every day: Close the door when you leave. She forgot to lock her car door.  They live two doors up the street from us.  His office is the third door down the hall on the left.  A day cannot go by without the use of the word door.

The Egyptians put into their tombs a false door.  It served as an imaginary passage for the deceased between the world of the living and the world of the dead.  Lavish inscriptions were on the false door, referring to the countless offerings the deceased was about to receive.  Sometimes, a life-sized statue of the deceased was placed before the door as if it had just stepped out. (Ancient Egypt From A to Z, Internet Site)

We can’t live without them.  They keep the cold drafts of winter outside and the cool air inside during the hot, sultry days of summers and keep the swarms of hostile insects outside.  A door can be locked for security purposes if properly fitted.  Doors keep us from falling out of our cars.  Closed doors can stop the spread of a home fire.  Doors give us privacy and absorb outside traffic and neighborhood noises.  A door can have many names: trap, stable, barn, French, garden, pet, revolving, and automatic door.  Whatever its name, a door serves a very distinct and useful function.

Door fills several reference columns in a Zondervan Concordance and is well worth studying each use in God’s Word.

• But He That Entereth In By The Door Is The Shepherd Of The Sheep.
• Verily, Verily, I Say Unto You, I Am The Door Of The Sheep.
• I Am The Door: By Me, If Any Man Enter In, He Shall Be Saved And Shall Go Out, And Find Pasture. (John 10).
• Behold I Stand At The Door, And Knock: If Any Man Hear My Voice, And Open The Door, I Will Come Into Him And Will Sup With Him, And He With Me. (Revelation 3).
• For I Will Pass Through The Land Of Egypt This Night, And Will Smite All The Firstborn In The Land Of Egypt, Both Man And Beast; And Against All The Gods Of Egypt I Will Execute Judgement: I Am The Lord.
• And The Blood Shall Be To You For A Token Upon The Houses Where Ye Are: And When I See The Blood (On The Two Side Posts And On The Upper Door), I Will Pass Over You.- (Exodus 12)

James Rowe (1865-1933) came to America from England in 1889. He settled in Albany, New York. He worked for the railroads and later for music publishers in Texas and Tennessee. He wrote the words, I WAS SINKING DEEP IN SIN and JUST OUTSIDE THE DOOR (1912): O weary soul the gate is near, in sin why still abide? Both peace and rest are waiting here, And You are just outside. Just outside the door, just outside the door, Behold, it stands ajar! Just outside the door, just outside the door, So near and yet so far!

An old saying in the South, “Katie bar the door,” meant “something unstoppable is coming!” and “Katie bar the kitchen door“ suggested that you had better watch out!