Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, July 2, 2023
It was not the ideal time to go grocery shopping – the Friday before 4th of July week. I usually avoid shopping on Fridays before holidays, and, I’m afraid, have even felt a bit smug about it, as if avoiding a predictably busy time is a clever strategy.
However, it was day five of Vacation Bible School and the week had been full and the refrigerator was getting empty and there was a church potluck the next day. So there we were on a very busy Friday with our shopping accomplished, looking for the shortest checkout line of the many lines of customers stretched across the front of the store.
All lines looked long, so we settled on the one closest to us. A few minutes later the cashier left her post and hurried over to us and handed my husband a sign. “Put this down after you load your groceries on the belt,” she said, “and don’t let anyone stand in line behind you.”
She hustled back to her post, leaving my husband holding a sign that proclaimed, “THIS CHECKSTAND IS CLOSED.”
We had been resigned to a longish wait in line, but we hadn’t counted on the job of shooing away people who tried to join our line.
There were still three customers ahead of us, and the carts of the two directly in front of us were heaped high to overflowing with groceries, so we were nowhere near the place where we could set down the sign. Instead, my husband tried different ways of holding it, while apologetically telling any customers who attempted to line up behind us with their carts that the cashier had given him this sign . . .
Finally he settled on the pose you see in the photo, holding the sign high behind his head and wiggling it slightly to call attention to it. No one wheeled up behind us after that, and we eventually made our way to the cashier, who thanked us for holding the sign. I wished her a good break (this was mid-afternoon), and she said she was actually getting off work, since she’d been there since early morning. No wonder she was eager to close down her line!
While we’d been waiting in line I had plenty of time to muse on the sight of my husband patiently holding the CLOSED sign. It seemed odd to me, because he has served as a pastor for 41 years, where his mission has been to hold up OPEN signs, such as:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24, NIV, emphasis supplied.)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16, NKJV, emphasis supplied)
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20, NKJV, emphasis supplied)
One of the many reasons that Vacation Bible School is such a joyful time is that all five nights the focus is on Jesus and how He loves all of us, and longs for each of us to say Yes to His free gift of salvation, and a forever life with Him.
I want to live the rest of my life in such a way that it’s as if I’m holding a sign that says, “OPEN.” Open to listening to you, Open to caring about you, Open to hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying to me, and Open to following what He says, by God’s grace.
As we step out into this brand-new week, it’s so good to know that we walk with the One whose ear is open to our voice, and whose arms are wide, wide open to welcome us into life forever with Him.