Ananias and the Door He Was Afraid to Open

In the city of Damascus lived a kind man named Ananias. He loved God. And when God spoke, he always listened. But this time, when God called his name, Ananias began to shake.

"Ananias," God said.

"Here I am," he answered.

God had a job for him. Across the city, on a street called Straight, there was a house. And in that house was a man who was blind, and praying, and waiting. God wanted Ananias to go to him and lay gentle hands on his eyes, so he could see again.

And Ananias knew exactly who that man was.

His name was Saul. Saul was the most frightening man Ananias had ever heard of. Saul hunted people who loved Jesus. He pulled them from their homes. Grown-ups lowered their voices when they said his name. Children hid. Everyone who loved Jesus was afraid of Saul.

And now God was asking Ananias to walk right up to Saul's door, and open it, and go inside.

"Lord," Ananias said, and his voice trembled, "I have heard about this man. I know the terrible things he has done. He came here to hurt us."

Do you know that feeling? When someone frightens you, and you are asked to go near them anyway, and everything inside you says run, and lock the door, and stay safe?

God heard the fear in Ananias, and he did not scold him for it. He answered softly, and what he said changed everything.

"Go," God said. "I have chosen this man. He will carry my name to kings, and to strangers, and to people who have never heard. He is going to be mine."

The man everyone feared was the very man God wanted. God was already reaching for him.

So Ananias went. One slow step at a time, all the way down Straight Street, all the way to the door. And there he stopped, with his heart pounding and his hand shaking as he lifted it to knock.

But he opened the door. He walked in. He stretched out his hands toward the man who had come to hurt him. And the very first word out of his mouth was this.

"Brother."

"Brother Saul," he said. "The Lord Jesus sent me, so you can see again."

Saul had come to Damascus as an enemy, and here in the dark he was being called family.

And something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see. The man who had carried fear everywhere now had a family. The door that fear had held shut swung wide open, and on the other side stood a brother.

This is what Jesus loves to do. He takes the one you were most afraid of, and he makes them family. He turns enemies into brothers and sisters, sitting together at his table. The frightening one becomes a beloved one, loved every bit as much as you.

Ananias was right to be afraid. And he knocked anyway, because Jesus had gone into that room ahead of him and was already turning a hunter into a brother.

So on a street called Straight, two men who should have been enemies sat down to supper together, and Saul ate, and grew strong. Jesus was widening the door of his family. And he was not finished knocking.