By Margaret Neblock
We had tested all of the keys we could find in and around the 100 year old home, yet none would open the little brass lock on the old writing desk my grandmother used as a side table. While she was a meticulous record-keeper, she somehow hadn’t left any notes to tell us where she kept the key or what she kept in the small wooden container.
The murmur of voices in the living room was suddenly interrupted by a metallic click. Anton, my cousin’s husband who just happens to be a locksmith, had succeeded in unlocking the wooden box. It was no easy task.
He tinkered for at least a half hour with a blank key, a file, and some other specialized smithing tools to make the tumblers turn in that old mechanism. Peering over and around each other, members of my family huddled around the small chest, ready to catch a glimpse of what may be contained within.
That’s the trouble with keys. If you lose one, you cannot replace it with another random key and expect it to work. There is no one key that will turn the deadbolt on your front door, start your car, and open your filing cabinet at work.
Instead, we walk around with ever-expanding key rings that jingle as our collection of keys grows with our need to keep things locked up and protected. If one is lost, it must be replaced or remade if there is ever hope of opening the sealed object. Sometimes, the key is lost forever, and the lock remains closed, forgotten.
Sometimes, the key is lost forever, and the lock remains closed, forgotten.
However, there is a key that is different from all the rest. It isn’t made of metal. It doesn’t even open a physical lock. The key of David, Jesus, was sent for us, to break the padlocks sin placed around us the moment each of us entered the world.
The key of David, Jesus, was sent for us, to break the padlocks sin placed around us the moment each of us entered the world.
On Sunday, Pastor Dan talked about the areas of life that we tend to hide, locked in the darkest places of ourselves- things that we are ashamed to admit to ourselves, much less anyone else. How could we possibly survive if God knew what we are hiding?
Therein lies the fallacy; God already knows what we have hidden, what we are hiding, and what we will hide in the future. He sees all, and still yearns to rescue us from the sin that binds us.
He sees all, and still yearns to rescue us from the sin that binds us.
Gracefully, God sent his Son to unlock us from our sin. Not just once, but over and over again. Jesus didn’t only come to unlock one sin for each of us either. Instead, he forgives all our sins, in every combination, all the time.
I pray to be reminded of that every day this week and beyond.
