Tracy had noticed the gate for some time. It was made of iron and was built into the high stone wall she passed every day on her way to school. Through the gate she could see a beautiful garden of flowers. Oh, how she wanted to walk through this garden sometime. But the gate was always closed and locked whenever she went by it.
One Sunday in her Sunday school class Miss Morton, Tracy’s teacher, talked to her class about the “gate of salvation.” She drew a word picture of a gate through a wall. The Lord Jesus Christ was the only person who had the key to this gate. She said He was willing and waiting to open the gate for anyone who asked to go through it.
“That’s just like the gate in the wall that I pass on my way to school,” Tracy thought to herself.
About a week later Tracy was peering through “her gate,” as she called it, when an old man walking down the road stopped beside her.
“You seem interested in that gate,” he remarked.
Tracy was too shy to reply.
“Do you want to go into that garden?” he asked, smiling warmly.
Now, although Tracy knew nothing about the garden, she did know that rich people lived in the area and that the garden belonged to one of them. Looking at this man, she did not think he was one of those rich people, so she was sure he would not have the key to the gate. It bothered her to think that he had found out her secret wish.
She didn’t answer him, and being a little frightened, she ran down the road as fast as she could.
The next Sunday Miss Morton told her class that she had a surprise for them. Mrs. Sanderson, who lived in the area where the garden was, had invited them all to come for lunch at her house the following Thursday, a school holiday.
“You will like Mrs. Sanderson,” Miss Morton told them. “She is a very nice Christian lady.”
Tracy was excited. She did not often go to someone’s home for lunch, especially someone as rich as Mrs. Sanderson.
When Thursday came it was a sunny, warm day, and the six girls in Miss Morton’s class were all excited. Mrs. Sanderson’s home was very beautiful. But the girls thought the garden where they were going to have lunch was much prettier.
When they were finished eating lunch Mrs. Sanderson said her husband wanted to talk to them for a few minutes. Mrs. Sanderson went into the house to get her husband. When she returned Tracy was startled and felt her face get red, because Mr. Sanderson was the same old man who had talked to her by “her gate” the week before. She sat very still, hoping that he would not recognize her.
He came up to the table and spoke to the girls. “And now, my young friends, I want to talk to you for just a minute or two,” he began, smiling as he looked from one girl to the next. “The other day I was walking down the road. I had a key in my pocket. It was the key for an old gate which leads into a garden at the other end of our property. It is my own garden; I take care of it myself and grow the kind of flowers we used to have in our garden when I was a boy.
“I saw a little girl standing by the gate to the garden. I knew by the way she was looking through the gate that she really wanted to go into the garden. I spoke to her and asked her if my thoughts were right, but I knew by her silence and by the way she looked at me that she was pretty sure I could not open the gate for her. So she just turned and ran on down the road.
“I think a lot of us are like that little girl. We don’t realize that we are being given an invitation. God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is inviting us to come to Him so that He may open the “door of salvation” for us. We just turn our back on Him and run away.”
Mr. Sanderson went on to explain how the Lord Jesus had said, “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9). As he spoke Tracy suddenly knew that she wanted to have the Lord Jesus open the “door of salvation” to her, so that she might enter in.
After Mr. Sanderson stopped speaking he asked the girls if they would like to come to see his little garden. Five of them got up quickly, but Tracy sat still in her seat.
“Don’t you want to go, Tracy?” Mrs. Sanderson asked, but Tracy could not answer.
Miss Morton came over beside her. “What’s wrong, Tracy?” she asked.
“Oh, Miss Morton,” she said, “I’m the girl Mr. Sanderson met. I wish I hadn’t run away... and I — I don’t want to run away now if only the Lord Jesus will open the door for me...”
Miss Morton put her arm around Tracy and assured her that the Lord Jesus was still waiting for her, so right there in the Sanderson’s garden Tracy accepted His invitation.
Won’t you accept His invitation right now so that you, too, can be saved?
ML-06/09/1985