Taken for granted many times!
Except when you need one.
Gates.
Have you ever been riding a horse and had to get off, open the gate, get the horse through, shut the gate and then get back on to continue your ride?
Have you ever gotten home tired and worn out and had to get out of the car, in the rain or snow, open the gate, get back in the car, drive through the gate, then get back out to fasten the gate securely?
Have you ever been exploring and come across a tall, metal gate you couldn’t climb over that was sealed with a heavy lock?
Or have you been delighted to be on the way to tour a famous place and found the gate open for you to explore and admire the beautiful grounds and buildings?
Gates.
Keep you in or out. Keep others in or out. Can be for safety and security or just decoration.
I had a wonderful horse, Moose, 15 hands high, a red leopard Appaloosa walking horse. He had a best friend in the pasture, a little Shetland pony named Tony. Dad built a fence around the pasture and a gate that was made of boards connected by barb wire. A loop of wire at the top and bottom went over the last board of the flexible gate and the last fence post to the pasture, keeping the horses safely inside.
One morning before school I got a phone call from the local radio station down the road. “Your horse is out and down here in the front of the station eating grass and a little horse is with him.”
So, I get up and quickly dress to go retrieve the pasture gate breakers! They had figured out how to put their noses under the wire loop and lift it over the board, making it easy to get out over the fallen gate.
Have you ever escaped from the gate meant to keep you in? Our chickens try it sometimes. We had a rooster who got caught trying to get under the fence and got stuck to his demise.
We put a fence around our yards to keep our children or pets safe from danger. If there is no gate — well, what’s the use of the fence?
In the Bible times, cities had gates to protect the people from dangerous enemies. The gates became a place of commerce, gathering and even justice when important townspeople located there to settle local disputes.
Gates could be wooden, stone, reinforced with metal, or have heavy wooden boards over the back to keep the gate steady when pushed or attacked from the outside.
Think about your spiritual life. What fences have you put up to keep Satan and his wild ideas out of your life and heart? Who is allowed in the gate of your heart and soul? How have you reinforced the boundaries of where the world, the flesh and the devil try to gain entrance?
Gates are mentioned around 300 times in the Bible. Wouldn’t you like to find out what we can learn from them?
In John 10:9, Jesus says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
That’s a gate I want to be sure to go in!
What about you?
