A couple of weeks ago, I was given a reminder.

This wasn’t just any reminder either. It wasn’t a reminder about homework or about chores.

It was a reminder about a time when a door was dramatically slammed in my face. It was a reminder about something that happened that came completely out of nowhere. It was a reminder about something that I had to leave behind.

It was a weird feeling, as memories that I haven’t even thought of in a long time flooded back to a less-then-pleasant time in my life. I didn’t understand why things had to happen the way they did; why everything had to change so drastically and so suddenly.

A couple of months later, I finally understood. I found out some details that pertained to my situation and “thanked God I didn’t get what I thought that I deserved”, in the words of Carrie Underwood’s song, Good in Goodbye. Today, I realize that what happened was for the best.

Oftentimes, when God closes a door, we don’t understand why. We want things to happen our way in our timing. We plead with God, we ask why, and we we analyze our situation to death. Nonetheless, I’ve found that every time God has closed a door, it’s been for the best. The times that God has said “no” and “wait” have always been times that have led me to something better. Whether it be with an opportunity or relationship, God always knows what is best for us.

Perhaps you’re going through a time like this right now. Perhaps God is shutting a door that you’re struggling to pry back open. You cry out to God asking “Why?” You ask how this could possibly be good. If this describes a situation in your life, hold on. God has a greater plan for you than you can even imagine right now. That closed door will end up being the very door that steers you to find an open window. You may not see the light right now, but believe that it’s there. God never closes a door unless He has something better for us, and endings are always portals to new beginnings.

If God says no to something, it’s because He sees what we can’t. We can only see the here-and-now, but God sees the big picture. In the movie Do You Believe life is compared to a tapestry. Our lives are all intertwined, threaded together to create a masterpiece. From our perspective, we only see a mess of scattered threads, but from God sees the full tapestry, in all of it’s wonder and beauty. Each event is one chapter in the story of humanity, and every end leads to something far better.

So, next time God closes a window, take heart. God is opening a window somewhere else that is more amazing than you could ever imagine. 🙂

God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows.-Tim Keller