Open the Door and Walk Through

In Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 16, verses 13-19 Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter quickly answered, as he so often did, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (NIV) Jesus praises Peter and goes on to say, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.”

The image of keys ignited a whole line of thinking for me. When we lived in our old farm house when the boys were young, our house key was an ornate skeleton key. That key never worked quite right; you always had to do a lot of jiggling before the door would open.

The keys I carried over my lifetime seemed...