A man was looking to buy his first house. He had always known in his mind's eye what his house should look like. Always, he had pictured everything from the flowers that his wife would plant in the garden to the base boards that would run along the wall.
So the search started. He looked all over town. The first house he went to looked gorgeous on the outside. Perfect paint, with contrasting color on the shutters. A perfectly landscaped yard, complete with masonry and sprinklers to keep the yard nice and green. A white picket fence, complete with a perfect little gate. Around back the yard was perfect for little kids to run around. A beautiful privacy fence painted white to match the front yard. There was enough room to throw the baseball around once Junior came along. Enough room for Junior to have a group of friends over and play a game of football. A nice little mini-barn, full of all the landscaping tools needed to keep up the pristine grass, trees and flowerbeds. In one corner, a perfect little garden to grow tomatoes, green beans and of course hot peppers.
He was sure this was the one that he wanted. No need to see any other houses. Then, he figures he needs to go inside and see the rest of the house. The man thinks, "surely, the inside is as immaculate as the outside. I mean, anyone who puts this much time and effort on the outside would surely put as much if not more into the inside." As he is walking to the beautiful front door, complete with a custom gold plated knocker, he has a feeling hit him. Something just doesn't seem right, the outside is just too perfect. "Nah, I'm just paranoid that it is too good to be true."
His hand connects with the knob and he slowly turns it. The door swings open, ever so slowly and the first thing that he notices is the smell. A smell you never forget. He immediately thinks of his crazy cat relative, the one that had about thirteen cats and only three small litter boxes that were never cleaned out. The other smell is of rotten food, like fruit had sat on the counter far too long and began to stink.
As he steps over the threshold, he feels something crunch under his feet and it feels like he is walking on a dirt path rather than into a house. Down he looks and there is dirt and leaves and trash strewn all over the floor . The walls are covered with a thick, black slimy substance, that seems to just keep oozing over itself on its way to the floor. The furniture doesn't look much better and is covered in dust and cobwebs. By this point the man wants to vomit, but he figures that it can't be worse. He walks through the whole house but the scene is pretty much the same. The kitchen has rotten food strewn all over the counter with spiders and bugs crawling all over. He heads through the hallway to the bedrooms and the scene doesn't get much better. he makes it through to the back of the house. There is a lone door on the back wall and he opens it and sees a set of stairs going down into the depths of the house. There is an oppressive air of evil and a stench unlike anything he has ever smelled. The stench is so thick that he can't think clearly. At this point, he runs as fast as he can out of the door.
After a few weeks to recover from this experience, he decides to move on and continue his search for his dream house. The next house that he comes to has a tended yard but it is not very tidy. Yet, somehow it is warm and inviting. He walks through and hears birds singing in the trees, squirrels chattering and water trickling from the little stream running by the house. One thing that he notices almost immediately is that there are not any fences surrounding the property but that it is open to the surrounding countryside. He walks around back and there is a nice yard that has bushes and trees around. All of the bushes and trees are just a little unkempt and not manicured perfectly. The grass grows but not evenly and there are bald spots. "Hmm, not too bad, but why haven't they kept up with the landscaping? This yard could be so gorgeous with just a little attention." The man heads around to the front of the house and reluctantly up the steps toward the front door. He notices that the paint on the outside is done very well but over time has faded a little and one of the shutters is kind of falling off of the house. "This house could be nice and have great street appeal if it were just fixed up a little." He takes a deep breath and reaches toward the knob of the front door. As his hand makes contact, he hears from behind him a voice that says, "Beautiful isn't it?" The man turns around and says, "excuse me?"
The stranger walks up to him and says, "This is a beautiful house isn't it?" The man says, "If you like projects, I guess." "Oh but I do." the stranger says and then walks away.
"What an odd man." the man says. Turning around he opens the door and the house is homey and comfortable. The smell of warm apple pie wafts to him as the door opens all the way. The living room is neat but lived in. A comfortable looking, well used sofa sits in the room and there are pictures of people everywhere. He walks into the kitchen where the smell of apple pie comes from. It has some dirty dishes in the sink but is clean with a few crumbs on the floor.
Walking through to the back of the house he hears some music. The music is warm and inviting. "What a nice place," the man thinks.
As he is walking out of the house, he runs into the stranger. The stranger says, "What did you think of my house?" And the man replies, "It's really nice, but you have some work to do." Oh, I do, do I? You should have seen this place when I first got here. It looked a lot like the first house you visited." "I'm sorry, the first house I looked at?" the man responded. "How do you know about that? And there is no way that it looked that bad, that house was beyond repair."
The stranger looked at him with the most compassionate look and simply stated, " There is no house beyond repair, when I am the one doing the repairing."
Startled and confused, the man just stands there for a moment. "These houses are not like any I have ever seen, they seem to have character, feeling and almost a life of their own."
After a few moments the stranger stirs and says, "Come with me." The man follows him back into the house. "Look at these pictures, what do you see."
"Pictures of people." the man replied.
"No, they are much more than that these are the hopes and dreams of the house." stated the stranger.
"Okay, you are crazy, houses don't have hopes and dreams." retorted the man.
"Not true when the houses are men's hearts."
Jesus says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." Revelation 3:20
