There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t learn something from my kids, parenting tricks, how to upload more than one photo at a time to Instagram, computer apps., financial dealings, and matters of faith.

One of the kids said something to me that I am still chewing on and letting it percolate around in my head.

“God has used this time of shelter-in-place-for-safety as a vacuum.”

God has vacuumed every vice/idol out of our everyday lives so we can hear his whispering voice.

I thought about what idols have been vacuumed out of my life.

Thrift stores are closed.

Dinner parties have been cancelled.

Grocery stores are limited.

School are closed.

Jobs are different than ever imagined.

Friends can’t gather.

Churches are closed.

Exercising is different.

Everything!

Work, friends, exercise, school, computer time, even church time, what is you vice taking time from God?

In this vacuum, God’s knocking on our door, saying, “I am here. I am all you need. Trust me. Believe in me. I love you and will take care of you.”

I think of my many vices. This weekend we usually receive blessed palms as we celebrate Palm Sunday. We sing, we process, we celebrate Jesus arrival in Jerusalem. But this weekend there are no palms for me. But what if I look beyond the palms and imagine in my mind Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem in preparation for the week to come. If I need to feel a palm, I still have last year’s. I can join with Jesus in silence and listen as He explains to me what the ride was like, the donkey’s soft hair, the dust of the road, the crowd’s excitement, the palms and cloaks laid down for him. What he was thinking?

Jesus is knocking I just need to open the door for him to enter in and prepare for the Holy Week to come.

My parents had this framed artwork in our home while we were growing up. I never noticed until I was much older there was no door knob on the outside of the door. The door can only be opened from the inside. It is up to each one of us to open the door to Jesus.