"Enter 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 (NIV)
Have you ever been to a college football game, and, just as the last play of the game ends, tried to get back to your seat? You press on against 85,000 people, all going in a different direction than you are. You are going to one destination, they; to another. It’s like trying to swim out into the ocean as the tide comes in, or trying to walk up the down escalator. The world has their own map, but yours is different. Your map shows the back roads, footpaths, and hunting trails that are far from the Interstate. Your map guides you to the narrow gate that leads to life.
It would be so much easier to turn around and go with the flow of the crowd. After all, 85,000 people must know where they are going, right? Like a child who tells his parents ”everybody else is doing it”, many will get off the path as it narrows, climbs, and becomes overgrown with thorns and thistles. But to the determined Christian that keeps his eyes focused on Jesus, and doesn’t give up when the path gets harder, a priceless gift is waiting at the end of the path, for at the end of the path, Jesus waits to open the gate, take our hand in his nail scarred hand, and present us to the Heavenly Father, for the narrow path ends in eternal life.
Copyright 2007 Timothy E. Davis