When one door closes another one opens.

When one door closes another one opens. – Alexander Graham Bell

Easy to say, hard to see.  How many people can see the open door next to the closed door? The door that was open moments ago, the one that we were heading towards, had the goal of walking through, had been anticipating the idea of seeing what was on the other side and them SLAM! It closes in front of you leaving you staring at that door knob, reaching for it, twisting it, but finding it locked tighter than a drum.

Appalled, you stand there gasping, focused on why it is closed, what you did, what happened, will it open again, should I wait? Little do you know a door down the hall opened that you hadn’t noticed before. Maybe it was just installed, because you always keep your eyes open for new opportunities, right?

Needless to say, it’s open. There is light shining through the doorway. There is a red carpet across the threshold. There is a welcome sign on the wall. Maybe you would have noticed it if a high school marching band was playing through but alas traffic was horrible and they were held up.

Really?

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shapes of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience, and we soon shall see them in the proper figures. – Joseph Addison

Blessings to me are open doors (or windows big enough that I can crawl through) because I will take anything that I can get! And while I tend to miss the first sign, or the second or third, I try really hard each day to pay attention and to keep my mind and heart open to hear what God has planned for me. (Yes I said the G-word).

My mother’s death was as painful as it comes, especially amidst the traumatic circumstances. The loss of the child we were caring for was like grieving death all over again. A closed business, changing our lives completely, how much pain and disappointment can a person go through?

But when I look back at all of that loss, when I look back at the closed doors, the pain and death, the disappointments, I realize how blessed we are.  When the child we were caring for, for two years, was taken back it hit us like a death but God brought us an amazing dog to fill the hole in our hearts.

Now I’m not saying that a dog will fill the void a child leaves behind but it helped us. It was someone new we could love, focus our attention on, take pictures of, talk about.  While the child we were caring for didn’t die, he was as good as gone and it was just too painful to keep thinking about him.  Everything he did, touched, said, played with, it needed to be taken over by a happier moment. God made that happen.

When my mother was killed I went through every stage of grief and guilt possible.  But it was her death, the longing to be nearer to her that opened my heart to God. It was her spirit within me that gave me the strength to face the trials ahead and it is her memory that lives on within me that guides my good deeds and actions towards always desiring to do the right thing.

So when the door closes, when the marching band doesn’t arrive in time to announce the new blessing, close your eyes and open your hearts to the blessings that will appear if you only give them a chance to.