"Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ." (2 Thess. 3:5)

Rufus Jones lost a son of eleven years who was all the world to him. He wrote many years later about the experience, concluding with this story of how his own heart was opened to God's love: "When my sorrow was at its most acute, I was walking along a highway, when suddenly I saw a little child come out of a gate, which swung to and fastened behind her. She wanted to go to her home behind the gate, but it would not open. She pounded in vain with her little fist. She rattled the gate. Then she wailed as though her heart would break. The cry brought the mother. She caught the child in her arms and kissed away the tears. 'Didn't you know I would come? It's all right now.' All of a sudden I saw in my spirit that there was love behind my shut gate." (From Illustrations Unlimited, by James S. Hewett, p. 17)

When we find ourselves behind a shut gate, we need to remember the love of God. It is a love that can lead us through the gate to be at home with all the children of God.