O Key of David,
opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!

We talked about King David yesterday and we find him mentioned here today. The antiphon calls Jesus the Key of David. A key is a symbol of authority. The one who bears the key is capable of opening a door or locking it. Jesus is the one who opened the gates of heaven after they were closed by Adam and Eve’s sin. Jesus is the key.

When we give Jesus authority in our lives we are asking Him to do two things. We are asking Him to open our lives to new possibilities, experiences and people who will help us on our journey of faith. We are also asking Him to close us off from danger and temptations which could harm us. We are not perfect nor is the world perfect, so each of us have experienced times when we felt like a door should have been opened to us that remained locked. We have also experienced times when we felt like there was no way out, that each place we tried was sealed against us. Or perhaps there have been moments where we wish some doors were locked, that there were too many choices and we weren’t sure which one was truly the right one.

This is the beauty and the curse of free will. Jesus knows the way we should go, but we don’t always follow Him through the right door. There was a prayer that my mom would pray when we were growing up (and still does pray today) and I find myself continuing to pray. She would ask God to make the right path easy and the wrong paths difficult. When faced with a decision where she was unsure what to choose, she asked God to remove any obstacles from the way He desired for her. Ben and I have adopted a similar prayer for our family.

When it’s all said and done, we are still broken. Our wills are bent and are inclined to the wrong path. We are all in need of a savior. We are all in need of someone to open wide the gates of prisons we place ourselves in.

*** Please feel free to share your experience, thoughts and offer support to one another in the comments, on Twitter with the #DailyGraces or on the Facebook page.