The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.     Isaiah 9:2

This is a frightening, unpredictable world we travel through in our pilgrimage to our permanent home in heaven.  Most of us are rather helpless and vulnerable, like blind men, stumbling along the way.  Isaiah described our predicament:

We grope along the wall like blind men,
We grope like those who have no eyes;
We stumble at midday as in the twilight,
Among those who are vigorous we are like dead men.    Isaiah 59:10 

Sam Shoemaker was an Episcopal priest in the early 20th century.  His greatest love was introducing searching, lost people to a God who, just out of their sight, holds out His arms openly to them, heartily inviting them to come to Him.

I stand by the door.  I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.  The door is the most important door in the world.   It is the door through which men walk when they find God.  There’s no use my going way inside and staying there, when so many are still outside, and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.  And all that so many ever find is only the wall where a door ought to be.

They creep along the wall like blind men, with outstretched, groping hands, feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door, yet they never find it.  So, I stand by the door.  

The most tremendous thing in the world is for men to find that door: the door to God. The most important thing any man can do is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands and put it on the latch.  The latch that only clicks and opens to the man’s own touch.      Excerpt from Samuel Shoemaker, I Stand By the Door, An Apologia For My Life

The apostle Paul had the same mission vision for himself.  He relates how Jesus appeared to him and gave him this assignment —

 . . . to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.   Acts 26:18

Father God, thank You for seeking us patiently and persistently, then laying hold of us, adopting us, and bringing us into Your home to be with You forever.  Thank You that You opened our eyes to see You and that You placed our hands on the latch of the door into Your kingdom and welcomed us as Your children.