God’s Open Door

by Catherine Osornio
Published June 20, 2005

There are so many images of how Jerusalem looks like from a variety of sources: the books of the Bible; the writings of Josephus; the art of David Roberts; the travel journal of Mark Twain, to name a few. We know this to be the place where King David walked, where Alexander the Great once conquered, and where Jesus turned over the money tables at the temple.

Immediately exiting the highway 1 tunnel into Jerusalem you are overwhelmed with trying to see everything: hills and valleys; houses and buildings made from Jerusalem stone; steeples and domes of churches and mosques; men in traditional Arab headdresses and yarmulkes; children playing in schoolyards; people waiting at bus stops. You see many things found in an average city; but this is no average city. This is Jerusalem.

This was the center of Jewish worship. This was the city of kings. To be in a place that is thousand of years older than the oldest city in the United States made me feel numb; mainly because I was finally in a place I had read so much about and had always wanted to visit. Jesus walked here; and I was traveling through here, too.

I didn’t have to see Jerusalem or any part of Israel to believe the Bible was true. I already believed. But taking this trip, which was a miracle in itself, greatly enlarged my faith. Everything I believed was confirmed. Things I only read about were no longer just images in my head. They had length and depth and height. They had colors and shadows and textures. They were tangible. My Bible reading will never be the same.

When my husband and I began to talk about going to Israel, we didn’t have the money. In fact, not only did we have trip costs to consider, we needed to provide for my husband’s time off from work since he would not get vacation pay. We decided to take a step of faith that not only included finding the funds to go, but also finding babysitters for our four children so we could be gone for two weeks. We lifted everything up to the Lord. We chose not to let the impossibility of the trip stand in our way.

This was our third time signing up to go to Israel. The other two occasions were not our times to go. This time was. Relatives stepped forward to watch our kids. Unexpected monetary gifts came our way. We even received a bigger tax refund than expected. If we hadn’t taken the opportunity to sign up and pray, we would have missed a trip of a lifetime.

Is God stirring your heart to do something or go somewhere that seems impossible? Don’t let obstacles and doubts stand in your way. If the Lord is leading, He will provide. He will open the right doors for you. Pray for the Lord’s direction and see what happens. You will be richly blessed and you will have memories that will greatly increase your faith.

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