When God Closes a Door…

We have all heard this line sometime in our lives:

When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.

I saw this on a church sign yesterday though it actually said that God will open another door. I think that is a truer statement, of sorts. Though if you think about either one of them, it is like a door closes and another one immediately opens up. I think a better wording would be something like this:

When God closes a door, he will eventually open another door.

or

When God closes one door He opens another; but we stare at the closed door for so long that we miss seeing the open door!

I think the second one is even more interesting.We all have this vision of our lives and more often than not that vision is of a ‘happily ever after’. This vision encompasses certain things and people that we think we want to own or be with and will make us happy. And we spend a considerable part of our time pursuing these things and people – admission into that college, a job with xyz portfolio, a paycheck with 6 digits.

But as the road ahead unfolds, life doesn’t go as we had envisioned it for ourselves. We don’t get the things we wanted. The people we loved start walking away from us. And a shadow of doubt is cast over our ‘happily ever after’.

So we kick. We cry. We ask, “Why?” (worse, “Why Me?”). We refuse to face the facts and keep hoping that things will magically turn around one day for our ‘happily ever after’. We never come out of what has been.

In the process, we miss seeing the things that have been sent our way to make our lives better though they aren’t exactly what we wanted. We do not acknowledge the people whom we didn’t love but who are waiting for a chance to make us happier than ever in their own special ways. We look at the ones walking away for so long that we miss seeing the one who has been walking along all the while. We miss the chance to hold their hand and walk together forever just because we are busy wallowing in self-pity about how we never got what we wanted.

Maybe what we wanted was not the best for us. Maybe we deserved much more than what we wanted. Maybe we should learn to let go.

Because when God closes one door, He opens another. Maybe we should not close our eyes in prayer for so long and learn to keep them open to look at that door…and see beyond the closed door or at least see the open door next to it.