The Door of Return

Today, after spending time with ECM missionaries Jim and Carolyn Driscoll, I had the opportunity to tour the famous Cape Coast Castle and Dungeon, just up the road from their place in Biriwa, Ghana.  Over the coarse of several hundred years, hundreds of thousands of shackled Africans were held in dungeons as prisoners in this place before being shipped across the ocean into slavery.  After weeks or even months of suffering in these horrible conditions, those who survived were led through the "Door of No Return," and "loaded" onto ships as cargo, never to see their homeland again.  A sign hangs over the gate as a reminder of this horrifying fact.

As I looked at that sign, I thought back to the women enslaved in the dungeons of ritual servitude, as well as all those who are shackled by the irons of sin.  They surely must feel that they have passed through the door of no return!

While that sign made me cringe, I was equally struck by the sign that was hung, long after slavery had ended, on the outside of the gate.  It reads, "The Door of Return."  It is meant to be a reminder that though mankind is capable of horrifying acts, it is also capable of learning from mistakes and righting its wrongs.  While this is true, the sign made me think of something more significant.   I thought of the work that ECM is doing to liberate slaves. I thought of the work that Jim and Carolyn and the ECM team are doing in Biriwa, bringing countless souls to Christ and changing lives both for today and eternity.  It made me think of the truth that no matter the sin or shame, there is a way back in!

In John 10:9 Jesus says, "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  They will come in and go out, and find pasture."  There is no longer a door of no return, a one-way path to banishment from God!  Jesus provides a way back in, the door of return.  And that is the door that all of us need to walk through!