Entrances & Exits

Doors and doorways are fascinating to look at. You can ponder for ages about them from so many different aspects. You can consider what's on the other side of the door, for example, when you are standing on the outside of it. You can consider the number of different people who have passed through its portals, or perhaps been carried out through it for the last time, prior to setting off on their final journey from this life.

You can look at the workmanship of the door itself, and consider the person who created the overall appearance of such a doorway as the one in the picture above. or you can spend some time thinking about the history that goes with the doorway below.

Of course every door has two functions; firstly it is used to enter a building or space, and secondly it's used to exit through. Life is just like that, isn't it dear reader. We enter this life through birth's doorway and then, whenever God decrees that our time on earth is complete, we exit this life through another door. But of course, every door, as I said before, is both an exit and an entrance, and so, when we exit this life through death's doorway, we are also entering eternal life by the same passage. In some respects it's a matter of perspective.

Of course some doorways and doors will speak of a bygone age, rather like the Art Nouveau example above. In its design you can feel the flow of the artist at work and sense the romance of the design period. Yet its purpose is still the same, no matter what design it is.

I love to see a doorway in which the door has been left slightly open, almost as though you are being invited in to sample the secrets that lie hidden within. The series of arches below create the impression of a doorway that has no barriers, yet one that needs to be carefully negotiated nevertheless. With each arch you climb another step until you finally achieve the goal. Perhaps this too is symbolic of life, for we go through many entrances until we finally exit through the last one in order to enter into Glory!