Happy Valentine’s Day!
“You have the key to my heart!”
I’m sure most of you who celebrated Valentine’s Day when you were youngsters received at least one valentine that had the above comment or one like it.
Just recently Hardy and I had a day that caused us to ponder the significance of keys.
It was a Wednesday and the day began with a "key" reference. We like to start our day by reading from “Rejoice!” (a quarterly inter-Mennonite journal with daily devotionals).
We read about Peter, whose relationship with Jesus moved from confession (a declaration that he believed Jesus was the "Messiah, the Son of the living God") to denial (not long after, Peter denied even knowing Jesus) to return (again declaring his love and devotion to Jesus and his willingness to help build the church).
The writer of the devotional (Jennie Wintermote) drew the conclusion that God’s love for Peter never stopped. In fact, Jesus said to him, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven." (Matthew 16.19)
We wondered how an unreliable and fallible human being could be trusted with such a great honour. Peter himself must have wondered exactly what that meant. Jesus went on to explain that this was not about power and control but about self-sacrificial love (Matthew 16.24-25), and that anyone who was willing to embrace it would receive the same promise that was given to Peter (16.18-19).
After we read this significant passage about keys, we went about our day. Hardy had some errands and shopping to do and I went to church to look after children while their mothers had a Community Kitchen event. The smells coming from the kitchen were incredible, and following the session for that day I received a dinner to take home with me. My friend dropped me off and I fumbled with my house keys and all the stuff I was carrying. It was one of the coldest days we have had this winter and I was anxious to get into the house.
Hardy got home just before me. He had a "key" story to tell me. While shopping he suddenly realized his set of keys were missing. He retraced his steps, looked everywhere, but couldn’t find them. Finally he went to customer service and ... someone had turned them in! He was so relieved.
I listened to his story and thankfully did not remind him that he should have taken the phone with him so he could call someone, or that he should have the keys somehow connected to his wallet, etc.
Just after Hardy finished telling me his story, the doorbell rang. I went to answer it and the person who does our snow shovelling held up my set of keys and said he had found them in the door! We just looked at each other incredulously. That man could have walked away with our keys and we would never have been the wiser. (Hardy also refrained from lecturing me!)
What is interesting to us is that this all happened in one day. Which got me thinking about keys and their significance.
Keys are such an important part of our lives, I'm sure there are many "key" stories out there. Feel free to share them!
