A Dream of Two Doors and a Pathway...

“I had a strange dream last night,” said my son Grant this morning as he climbed out of bed.  “What was it?”  I asked.  “Well, I was standing in line with a bunch of other kids and there were two doors…and a pathway…” Grant tried to explain the dream to me, but he seemed puzzled by these two doors and the pathway, and by the selection of children who were standing by his side.  As I listened to my son try to recount his confusing dream, I could not help but thinking about the two gates and the two different pathways found in Scripture. 

As in Grant’s dream, there comes a point in our lives when we encounter those two doors and one decision that lead to one pathway.   Christian life is actually based on this decision.  After we consciously make that choice, the rest is a daily walk on the true Way, and constant reaffirmations of our decision to follow Him. 

But, what is this choice?  What is this decision on which the rest of our lives depend?  We choose to accept and receive Christ as our Lord and Savior or we choose to reject Him.  That’s it.  When asked by Thomas as to where the “way” is, Jesus replied to him:  I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”(John 14:6b-7)  We choose the Way, which is Christ; and once we know Him, we know that He is the Only Way.  That’s the first step into the pathway to sanctification.  After that there is nothing but to keep on walking without looking back. 

This decision makes all the others more easily discernable.  It is so because from the point of our decision to follow Christ onward we have The Holy Spirit and His Word as our guide.  The rest of the choices we face as we walk in His path could be made by searching Scripture empowered by the clarity that only the Holy Spirit can give, and by holding Its Decrees as Truth for He is not only The Way; but He is Truth and He is Life. 

Once we make the decision to follow Christ, we become children of the Most High, adopted through Jesus according to His pleasure and will.  (Ephesians 1:5)  We are no longer slaves to sin, but vessels of the Holy Spirit.  We don’t make our choices based on the latest trends and polls.  We don’t make our choices based on society’s consensus or on peer pressure.  We don’t make our choices based on what everyone else is choosing.  We choose Christ.  We choose to seek Him and His Kingdom.  After that initial choice, all the pieces fall into place by the Will of God. (Matthew 6:33)  It is a decision that leads us through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) 

Though the choice is clear, it is not easy.  It is not easy for it implies a walk that rejects self-indulgence and a denial of the desires of the flesh.  On the other hand, the wide gate is enticing and inviting.  It promises earthly fulfillment and it leaves appetites or sinful passions unchecked.  Besides, there is plenty of company for those who enter through it.  The wide gate is highly visible and hard to miss.  The narrow gate, on the other hand, is not so conspicuous and only a few eventually find it.  Only those who say yes to Christ are directed to it.  For this reason, the narrow gate may present a lonely alternative.  It may also represent a separation from those with whom we used to walk before.  But once we go through it, we will find ourselves in the company of the faithful and will develop fellowship in Christ all the way to our eternal home. 

I attempted to talk to Grant about how his dream was so very important.  I tried to tell him that his dream had made me think about the two gates and the pathways, and how the narrow gate is the one that leads to life.  Dan even told him that God sometimes chooses to speak to His people in dreams, like Joseph; but Grant was off to something else by then.  I guess he just didn’t feel like enduring another grueling sermon by his parents.  All he wanted was to share with us his puzzling dream with us.  Our hope and prayer is that when Grant faces that crucial point in his life the Holy Spirit will guide him to the narrow gate and the path of righteousness for no one can walk on both…we can’t walk with one foot on one and the other foot on the other.  Either we step in the path that is Christ with both feet firmly planted or we are on the path of wickedness which leads to death.  

¹ Blessed is the one
   who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
   and who meditates on his law day and night.  Psalm 1: 1-2