We let our dog Casey out in the backyard to do her business several times a day. It seems like every time we open the door to let her out, a fly comes in. I usually stalk them with a dish towel until I can kill them. Yesterday the fly that got in was too fast. I couldn’t kill him. I forgot about him and went about my day. This morning I opened the refrigerator to get my eggs for breakfast, and there on the top shelf, next to the yogurt and parmesan cheese, stood the pesky fly, frozen in place. 

It’s summer in Texas. I understand why the fly wanted to come in. It must have felt like jumping in the pool on a hot day. He went from 100 degrees outside to 75 inside. But flying into the refrigerator through the open door was a bad move. He probably saw an all you can eat buffet. I get excited about those too. But he didn’t account for the temperature drop. It’s only about 40 degrees inside my refrigerator. The first door gave sweet relief from the sweltering heat, but the second door brought death. 

My story is about choosing the right doors to enter. We have to be careful. We don’t always know what’s on the other side of them. Even when we do, what looks good to our eyes can be harmful to us. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

The narrow gate Jesus was talking about is salvation and eternity in heaven. The broad gate is hell. Metaphorically, there are many doors we can walk through thinking they will lead to heaven. Jesus called them wide gates. There’s the gate of performance. We can think our good deeds earn us a place in heaven. There’s the gate of comparison. We can judge ourselves more righteous than others, and so by comparison, we get in. There’s the gate of suffering. Some think that suffering on earth secures a special place in heaven. Those are all the wide gate that leads to destruction because they are all based on our own performance.

There’s only one door that gets us into heaven. Jesus said in John 10:9: “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and go in and out and find pasture.” ​None of us is qualified to enter heaven on our own merit. That’s why Jesus came as God in the flesh to live a perfect life and die to pay for our sins. When we enter through Him, we have eternal life. As good as the food looked to the fly in my fridge, death was behind that door. Enter through the only door that leads to life.