Just through the red door lies a mystical place where live the little-known creatures, the ones the world looks upon as myth and legend.  In this realm, they live and breathe, just the same as you and I.  Journey with me through the red door, to the place of imagination and we will find a new dimension of reality.

The new day calls out with an invitation from those beyond the door.  It is they who wish to meet us and share their tales!

I hear Grandpa Ansel, a respected elder, greeting the new day, in his usual fashion.

“Hark, noble ones of the realm!”

On a day as fine as this, I usually find Grandpa out and about, but today his favorite chair holds him fast.  Not as young as he once was, some days, he prefers the comfort of home, hearth and his beloved, Grandma Elena.  Today is such a day.

Sunlight pours in through the windows, embracing the common room with its warmth and welcome.  I don’t know if I’ve ever visited a more peaceful place.  The garden gnomes have mastered the sense of home.

Today I find Grandpa Ansel quiet and reflective, The Book of Mysteries open upon his lap.  The air is perfumed with some delectable eats prepared by Grandma Elena, who sits in companionable silence now, her hands busy with refurbishing the felt of a gnome cap.  Industrious by nature, these aged gnomes have learned the art of slowing down and savoring a moment of quiet rest.

“A penny for your thoughts,” said Grandma Elena.

“I’m remembering, Elena.  I’m thinking about Gunder and myself, in our youth, before I met and married you.  We are the same gnomes that we once were but so changed.  Where once we were quite inseparable in our antics and adventures, it seems we have grown far apart.  There are moments when I catch a glimpse of young Gunder and then it is like a veil drops and he grows dim so I can no longer see the imp that was my younger brother,” Grandpa explained.  “I miss him, and I don’t want him to return to the hill country.  I want to spend my remaining years in his company and get to know him again.”

“Having Gunder under our roof has been wonderful.  He left not long after we married, and I never had a chance to know the younger Gunder.  I have pondered the timing of his departure, and I wonder if my presence in your life influenced his decision to leave.  Is it possible that he felt that your position as his best friend was usurped by my being here to stay?” she asked Grandpa.

Chuckling, Grandpa answered, “Well, I was pretty smitten with you and my every minute was occupied with thoughts of you!”

“That’s just it, Ansel.  We built our world around each other and perhaps Gunder felt that there was no room for him in our world, so he set out to find someplace where he felt he belonged.”

“You may be onto something, but Gunder isn’t likely to discuss the matter.  One of the biggest changes I see in my brother is the transformation from gregarious and outgoing to silent and withdrawn.  The gnome barely speaks.”

“Have you told him that you want him to stay?” Elena asked.

“No.  I don’t think he would want to hear it,” Ansel answered.

“It is time for you to draw near Ansel, and hear the wisdom of age,” Grandma Elena began.   “Your fondness for giving counsel is surpassed only by your unwillingness to receive it!  I think today I shall be the wise sage, so hear me well, dear gnome.

At the end of this time here in Rehoboth, there is nothing left for us nor of us, except love.  Love is so much more than a feeling.  It is an expression of our very soul, our core.  If it isn’t given away to those we love, there is nothing left of us after we depart from this place.  It is like we never existed.

You must talk with Gunder, Ansel.  You must express your love to your brother or how else will he know it?  Speak to him from your heart.  Tell him all that is in there.”

“What if I do?  What if it makes no difference?  What if he chooses to return to the hills even after I tell him?” Grandpa asked.

“It will make a difference, to both of you.  It may not change Gunder’s mind or the circumstances, but it will leave a piece of your heart with him as long as he draws breath.  It will make a difference to you because you will always know that your heart will go on, after your body no longer does.  Your love for your brother will not be diminished in the ‘giving.’  You will take it with you to the beyond and your brother will carry that love with him always.  You see, Ansel, love is the only thing we will take with us when we go and it is the only thing of lasting value that we leave behind.

Go seek out your brother and give him your most precious gift.  Do it now, while you can, and forever your love will live on,” Grandma concluded, as she rose and headed to her kitchen.  “Oh, and Ansel, I love you!”

Reference:

1 Cor 13(  If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.)

Matt 13:44( The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.)

John 3:16( For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.)

John 15:12-13(¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.)