Just Enter

   One day the carpenter’s boss told him to take his tools and equipment and to go to such and such a place and build a new home.  The carpenter, upon arriving at the location, became puzzled.  There was already a new home on the site.  He called headquarters and explained that everything was done already.
   “What am I supposed to do?” he wondered.
   The boss says, “Just enter -- it’s yours!”
   “But... I didn’t do anything.  I don’t believe it.”
   In consequence of our natural self-sufficiency, we all aspire to enter our home in heaven by efforts and deservings of our own.  We deny human merit as a doctrine, but we all lust after it and fall into its grasp.  We want to do something.  We want to save ourselves by our own feelings, our own doings.
   The Gospel comes in like the carpenter’s boss and says in effect, “Your tools, your equipment and manuals are useless.  This home is already built.  Just enter.”
   In our natural life, we are rewarded by our merits.  The Spiritual life is the opposite.  It’s not based on our merit.  It’s based on His merit.  It’s based on Who He is, and what He has already done.  We cannot add anything to what is already done.
   It’s puzzling to our finite minds that the home is already built and that our tools and ingenuity are of no avail.  Jesus is a better carpenter than we are, and all we have to do is enter and it is ours!