An inspired short story
Once there was a man who lived in a warehouse. When he bought it, he was determined to make it a wonderful home but he needed to make some major renovations. He bought some paint and painted the front of his warehouse a bright vibrant red, with splashes here and there of other bright colors, blue, purple, gold. When he was done he surveyed his work with pride. "Now everyone will think well of me, even if they never see the inside of my warehouse. They will think I am a vibrant, exciting, happy man."
At the end of the day, the man went inside. He looked around. The warehouse was completely bare. There was nothing at all in the whole big place, except a few dusty shelves and some cobwebs in the corner. "Obviously I will need to find a way to fill up all this empty space," the man said to himself. It was at that moment that he heard a soft sound at the back of the warehouse, a sound like someone knocking on a door. Assuming it to be old rafters banging against one another, the man ignored the sound.
The next morning, the man went out of his warehouse for a few hours and when he came back he had many things with him. He had bought furniture; a couch, a bed with a pillow, a lamp, a chair. He had bought a side table and a candle to put on it, a poster and a clock for the wall. He even bought a computer and a TV. "My house must be furnished," the man thought, "otherwise I would just be living in a big empty room!" and he chuckled to himself. He set up all his new things just right. When was all done, he slumped down on the couch, worn out and tired from the physical labor. He sat there, surveying his work and seeing if he had accomplished filling up his warehouse with things. When he looked at his little area, he saw his dark little corner full of everything a man would need. Then he turned his head and realized that the rest of his warehouse was still empty. Cold and dank and foreboding, he knew he would never be able to fill it with enough couches and TVs or posters to make it feel like home.
Aside from the constant knocking noise at the back of the house, the warehouse was very quiet. "Perhaps if there was music in this house, the sound would fill up the emptiness and make this a suitable place to live." So the man left and came back with all kinds of musical instruments. He practiced every day, learning guitar chords, playing the drums, figuring out how to coordinate his left and right hands on the piano. He eventually got pretty good at all of these things, and he would spend his hours making music alone in his warehouse. But the knocking sound penetrated his music, and with all these sounds, the man could not ignore the fact that his warehouse was still bleakly empty. The shelves still had cobwebs and the emptiness was still rather vast. Besides, his newfound musical skills weren't really worth much when it was just him alone.
Then it struck him: he needed people! He needed people to fill up this big place! Some company would serve him well. Maybe he could find a nice lady, even. A pretty girl to keep him from getting too lonely. Then he came to another realization. He could never let anyone inside his warehouse. It was too empty and gloomy and it would ruin everyone's perceptions based on what they could see from the bright paint on the outside. Since he didn't have much of a lawn out front on which he could have a party, he knew that he could never pull this off. Someone was bound to have to use the restroom and ask to go inside, or press him with annoying questions. Or what if it started to rain and everyone expected to be let in? No, he definitely could not have people over. They wouldn't fill up the space. And he was too ashamed to let them see the empty darkness anyway. The man abandoned the idea of having people over before he even tried it.
The knocking sound continued.
The man sat on his floor and looked around. He looked at his shelves. He really hadn't accomplished anything, had he? Well, surely that wasn’t helping. He needed trophies and awards to fill these shelves. He wanted the walls to be lined with blue ribbons. Then, not only would his warehouse be filled, he would feel better about himself. He had begun to feel rather bad about not being able to fill his warehouse. All that space was so...intimidating. Degrading. He knew he would amount to nothing, never really be content, until this place was full. He knew that awards would be good for him. It was just what he needed. He would finally feel happy and at peace because of his accomplishments.
The man set out the next day to begin his quest. He felt like maybe he was finally going somewhere in life, like maybe he had a future now. The man entered all kinds of contests. He entered the contest of the strongest man. He got in front of a crowd and played his piano, and when that didn't work he tried telling jokes to make people laugh. He entered a race to see if he could be the fastest man. He even entered an eating contest to see if he could eat more hot dogs than everyone else. In all these things he did well, but it was never good enough. There was always, always someone better than him. He watched after trophy after medal after certificate after prize after ribbon all passed in front of him and were handed to other, better, men.
The man went home that night and for the first time he wanted to cry. "I can do nothing!" he thought to himself. "I am worthless and I can please no one. It's no wonder my warehouse is so empty. There is nothing I know what to do that can fill it. I have no hope for the future and no one to love me in this big empty room. I am destined to sit here and be invisible everyone. Why am I even here? I am nothing to this world..." He fell onto the floor and let the tears come. The knocking sound. It was there, persistent, annoying, always knocking. "Shut up!" the man screamed to the noise. "Shut up! Why can't you leave me alone?!" Still the knocking continued. The man sat there for hours and eventually cried himself to sleep.
The next morning came. The man felt drained. He didn't want to go out today. He didn't want to make any music. He didn't even want to go near his now falling apart furniture. He sat up and stared at the wall bleakly. Little crossed his mind.
The doorbell pierced his trance. The man blinked and waited. A minute later, the doorbell came again. He hurried to his feet and went to the door. Whoever was there could not be allowed to see the inside of his house, so he opened the door just a crack and let his body fill the space, so whoever was there couldn't see in. Standing there was a woman. The first thing he noticed about her was that she was beautiful, from her head to her toes. The second thing he noticed about her was that she was faintly glowing, almost like she had an aura of light around her. He had seen a few people like this before, but not very often. The third thing the man noticed about the woman was that she was speaking to him. "...just wasn't sure if you'd answer but I thought I'd try and... what are you looking at?"
The man blinked and said, "Oh. What? What were you saying?" He could feel himself blushing but didn't think the woman noticed.
She took a deep breath. "I was just saying you have a beautiful home and I... I guess it's kind of a weird reason. I just wanted to meet the person who lived here. You have very nice taste. I don't know why I came, really. Just really quite curious."
The man looked forlorn. "You don't want to see the inside. It is not like the outside. It is not nice. I can barely stand to live here anymore. You don't want to see the inside."
The woman looked at him. She clearly wanted to see the inside, but she was gracious and polite enough not to look over his shoulder or be too pushy. She sighed. "That's up to you then, I suppose. I'm sorry to intrude."
The man started to panic. This beautiful woman wanted to get to know him and he had turned her away and he would probably never see her again. "Wait! Wait. You don't have to go. I... you can see a little. I just want you to be warned. It's not what you think."
The woman turned back around and beamed. A lovely smile, the man thought. He gingerly opened the door further and let her step inside. She peered around, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. The man could see the outline of light around her more clearly when she was out from under the light of the sun. When she could see clearly, and the desolation lay before her, she breathed out softly. "Ohhh..."
"I know," the man said. "It's not...pretty."
"No. It's not that. I just didn't know," the woman said, and the man was sure that after this he would never see her again.
The next day she was back. "I was wondering if we could talk, maybe."
The woman came back every day, and the man began to love her. She always brought a little bit of light into his home. One day she commented on the knocking sound. "So, are you going to answer that?"
"Answer what?"
"That knocking. Don't you think he'd like to be let in?"
"It's no one. It's just the rafters. They always do that."
"I wouldn't be so sure."
When she left that evening, the man listened and listened to the knocking sound. If it was bothering him before, it was downright agitating now. He decided he was going to find the source of the sound. He went to the back of his house and found a door he didn't know he had. The sound seemed to be coming from the other side. There was a peephole in the door and the man looked out. There, on the other side of the door, was a man, glowing brightly, wearing all white, shining white, and looking quite earnest as he knocked and knocked on the door.
Startled, the man stumbled back. He didn't understand. What kind of man would stand at someone's back door and knock day and night ceaselessly. Didn't he get tired? Wasn't that just a little creepy?
"You saw the Man in white." The woman said the next day. The man looked up. How did she know?
"How do you know?"
"You haven't recovered from the shock. Look at you! You've barely slept. Don't worry, He means no harm."
"How do you know Him?"
"Where do you think I get my glow from?"
"...oh."
It was clear that the woman loved him, and it was clear that she didn't mind the emptiness of the warehouse, and it was clear that she wanted him to open the back door to this stranger. It was clear that his house was still dark and her strange little glow did little to lighten it, and although when she was at his home, he stayed near her to enjoy her warming glow, the vastness that lay before him could hardly be ignored. It wasn’t enough to have her there.
“This probably won’t happen, but… what will happen if I open my door to the Man in white and he comes into the warehouse?”
The woman looked at him solemnly for a moment, then smiled, then giggled, and before he knew it, she was rolling on the floor with laughter.
“What?! What are you laughing at? I’m being serious!”
The woman sat up, and, gasping for breath and wiping tears from her eyes, she finally said, “I used to have a pretty empty house as well. Until I let the Man in white in.”
“You mean all this empty space can be filled if I just let Him in?”
“You betcha!” the woman said gleefully.
“…Will you come with me?”
Together, hand in hand, the woman and the man walked to the back door where the knocking continued, louder than ever before. The man grips the doorhandle and looks back at the woman nervously. She nods and smiles reassuringly. The man turns the handle and opens the door. The Man in white puts his fist down and looks at him. “May I come in?”
“Yes. You may. Please do. Come in,” the man says, haltering.
The Man in white steps inside. His glow follows him. He begins to walk around and he seems to leave a trail behind Him, a trail of light, of flowers and leaves, butterflies and berries. Light is spreading into the whole room, into every corner and crevice once concealed by darkness. The woman watches, beaming, and the man stares in awe and wonder at the Man in white. “I should have let you in a long time ago!”
The Man in white looks at the man. He smiles, and tears are in His eyes. “My friend,” he says, “My friend…” and he spreads his arms and wraps them around the man. The man feels a sense of…newness, strength, and joy.” The Man in white steps back and looks the man in the eyes. “You are home.”
The man looks down and realizes that he is faintly glowing. Not as much as the woman, and not nearly as much as the Man in white, but he knows that his light will grow. He looks up and sees his warehouse, now a forest of beauty, light, and the most beautiful music he’s ever heard. Although the warehouse looks just the same from the outside, with its red bright paint, as it did before, the inside seems to be endless. The space is no longer bleak and empty, it is full; full of possibilities, joy, beauty, light, and love. The man knows that none of this will die, he will have it forever. He knows that he will always have a friend in the woman, and that the Man in white will never, ever leave his side.
The man smiles, then giggles, and before he knows it, he is rolling on the floor with laughter. The warehouse is full.
At the end of the day, the man went inside. He looked around. The warehouse was completely bare. There was nothing at all in the whole big place, except a few dusty shelves and some cobwebs in the corner. "Obviously I will need to find a way to fill up all this empty space," the man said to himself. It was at that moment that he heard a soft sound at the back of the warehouse, a sound like someone knocking on a door. Assuming it to be old rafters banging against one another, the man ignored the sound.
The next morning, the man went out of his warehouse for a few hours and when he came back he had many things with him. He had bought furniture; a couch, a bed with a pillow, a lamp, a chair. He had bought a side table and a candle to put on it, a poster and a clock for the wall. He even bought a computer and a TV. "My house must be furnished," the man thought, "otherwise I would just be living in a big empty room!" and he chuckled to himself. He set up all his new things just right. When was all done, he slumped down on the couch, worn out and tired from the physical labor. He sat there, surveying his work and seeing if he had accomplished filling up his warehouse with things. When he looked at his little area, he saw his dark little corner full of everything a man would need. Then he turned his head and realized that the rest of his warehouse was still empty. Cold and dank and foreboding, he knew he would never be able to fill it with enough couches and TVs or posters to make it feel like home.
Aside from the constant knocking noise at the back of the house, the warehouse was very quiet. "Perhaps if there was music in this house, the sound would fill up the emptiness and make this a suitable place to live." So the man left and came back with all kinds of musical instruments. He practiced every day, learning guitar chords, playing the drums, figuring out how to coordinate his left and right hands on the piano. He eventually got pretty good at all of these things, and he would spend his hours making music alone in his warehouse. But the knocking sound penetrated his music, and with all these sounds, the man could not ignore the fact that his warehouse was still bleakly empty. The shelves still had cobwebs and the emptiness was still rather vast. Besides, his newfound musical skills weren't really worth much when it was just him alone.
Then it struck him: he needed people! He needed people to fill up this big place! Some company would serve him well. Maybe he could find a nice lady, even. A pretty girl to keep him from getting too lonely. Then he came to another realization. He could never let anyone inside his warehouse. It was too empty and gloomy and it would ruin everyone's perceptions based on what they could see from the bright paint on the outside. Since he didn't have much of a lawn out front on which he could have a party, he knew that he could never pull this off. Someone was bound to have to use the restroom and ask to go inside, or press him with annoying questions. Or what if it started to rain and everyone expected to be let in? No, he definitely could not have people over. They wouldn't fill up the space. And he was too ashamed to let them see the empty darkness anyway. The man abandoned the idea of having people over before he even tried it.
The knocking sound continued.
The man sat on his floor and looked around. He looked at his shelves. He really hadn't accomplished anything, had he? Well, surely that wasn’t helping. He needed trophies and awards to fill these shelves. He wanted the walls to be lined with blue ribbons. Then, not only would his warehouse be filled, he would feel better about himself. He had begun to feel rather bad about not being able to fill his warehouse. All that space was so...intimidating. Degrading. He knew he would amount to nothing, never really be content, until this place was full. He knew that awards would be good for him. It was just what he needed. He would finally feel happy and at peace because of his accomplishments.
The man set out the next day to begin his quest. He felt like maybe he was finally going somewhere in life, like maybe he had a future now. The man entered all kinds of contests. He entered the contest of the strongest man. He got in front of a crowd and played his piano, and when that didn't work he tried telling jokes to make people laugh. He entered a race to see if he could be the fastest man. He even entered an eating contest to see if he could eat more hot dogs than everyone else. In all these things he did well, but it was never good enough. There was always, always someone better than him. He watched after trophy after medal after certificate after prize after ribbon all passed in front of him and were handed to other, better, men.
The man went home that night and for the first time he wanted to cry. "I can do nothing!" he thought to himself. "I am worthless and I can please no one. It's no wonder my warehouse is so empty. There is nothing I know what to do that can fill it. I have no hope for the future and no one to love me in this big empty room. I am destined to sit here and be invisible everyone. Why am I even here? I am nothing to this world..." He fell onto the floor and let the tears come. The knocking sound. It was there, persistent, annoying, always knocking. "Shut up!" the man screamed to the noise. "Shut up! Why can't you leave me alone?!" Still the knocking continued. The man sat there for hours and eventually cried himself to sleep.
The next morning came. The man felt drained. He didn't want to go out today. He didn't want to make any music. He didn't even want to go near his now falling apart furniture. He sat up and stared at the wall bleakly. Little crossed his mind.
The doorbell pierced his trance. The man blinked and waited. A minute later, the doorbell came again. He hurried to his feet and went to the door. Whoever was there could not be allowed to see the inside of his house, so he opened the door just a crack and let his body fill the space, so whoever was there couldn't see in. Standing there was a woman. The first thing he noticed about her was that she was beautiful, from her head to her toes. The second thing he noticed about her was that she was faintly glowing, almost like she had an aura of light around her. He had seen a few people like this before, but not very often. The third thing the man noticed about the woman was that she was speaking to him. "...just wasn't sure if you'd answer but I thought I'd try and... what are you looking at?"
The man blinked and said, "Oh. What? What were you saying?" He could feel himself blushing but didn't think the woman noticed.
She took a deep breath. "I was just saying you have a beautiful home and I... I guess it's kind of a weird reason. I just wanted to meet the person who lived here. You have very nice taste. I don't know why I came, really. Just really quite curious."
The man looked forlorn. "You don't want to see the inside. It is not like the outside. It is not nice. I can barely stand to live here anymore. You don't want to see the inside."
The woman looked at him. She clearly wanted to see the inside, but she was gracious and polite enough not to look over his shoulder or be too pushy. She sighed. "That's up to you then, I suppose. I'm sorry to intrude."
The man started to panic. This beautiful woman wanted to get to know him and he had turned her away and he would probably never see her again. "Wait! Wait. You don't have to go. I... you can see a little. I just want you to be warned. It's not what you think."
The woman turned back around and beamed. A lovely smile, the man thought. He gingerly opened the door further and let her step inside. She peered around, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. The man could see the outline of light around her more clearly when she was out from under the light of the sun. When she could see clearly, and the desolation lay before her, she breathed out softly. "Ohhh..."
"I know," the man said. "It's not...pretty."
"No. It's not that. I just didn't know," the woman said, and the man was sure that after this he would never see her again.
The next day she was back. "I was wondering if we could talk, maybe."
The woman came back every day, and the man began to love her. She always brought a little bit of light into his home. One day she commented on the knocking sound. "So, are you going to answer that?"
"Answer what?"
"That knocking. Don't you think he'd like to be let in?"
"It's no one. It's just the rafters. They always do that."
"I wouldn't be so sure."
When she left that evening, the man listened and listened to the knocking sound. If it was bothering him before, it was downright agitating now. He decided he was going to find the source of the sound. He went to the back of his house and found a door he didn't know he had. The sound seemed to be coming from the other side. There was a peephole in the door and the man looked out. There, on the other side of the door, was a man, glowing brightly, wearing all white, shining white, and looking quite earnest as he knocked and knocked on the door.
Startled, the man stumbled back. He didn't understand. What kind of man would stand at someone's back door and knock day and night ceaselessly. Didn't he get tired? Wasn't that just a little creepy?
"You saw the Man in white." The woman said the next day. The man looked up. How did she know?
"How do you know?"
"You haven't recovered from the shock. Look at you! You've barely slept. Don't worry, He means no harm."
"How do you know Him?"
"Where do you think I get my glow from?"
"...oh."
It was clear that the woman loved him, and it was clear that she didn't mind the emptiness of the warehouse, and it was clear that she wanted him to open the back door to this stranger. It was clear that his house was still dark and her strange little glow did little to lighten it, and although when she was at his home, he stayed near her to enjoy her warming glow, the vastness that lay before him could hardly be ignored. It wasn’t enough to have her there.
“This probably won’t happen, but… what will happen if I open my door to the Man in white and he comes into the warehouse?”
The woman looked at him solemnly for a moment, then smiled, then giggled, and before he knew it, she was rolling on the floor with laughter.
“What?! What are you laughing at? I’m being serious!”
The woman sat up, and, gasping for breath and wiping tears from her eyes, she finally said, “I used to have a pretty empty house as well. Until I let the Man in white in.”
“You mean all this empty space can be filled if I just let Him in?”
“You betcha!” the woman said gleefully.
“…Will you come with me?”
Together, hand in hand, the woman and the man walked to the back door where the knocking continued, louder than ever before. The man grips the doorhandle and looks back at the woman nervously. She nods and smiles reassuringly. The man turns the handle and opens the door. The Man in white puts his fist down and looks at him. “May I come in?”
“Yes. You may. Please do. Come in,” the man says, haltering.
The Man in white steps inside. His glow follows him. He begins to walk around and he seems to leave a trail behind Him, a trail of light, of flowers and leaves, butterflies and berries. Light is spreading into the whole room, into every corner and crevice once concealed by darkness. The woman watches, beaming, and the man stares in awe and wonder at the Man in white. “I should have let you in a long time ago!”
The Man in white looks at the man. He smiles, and tears are in His eyes. “My friend,” he says, “My friend…” and he spreads his arms and wraps them around the man. The man feels a sense of…newness, strength, and joy.” The Man in white steps back and looks the man in the eyes. “You are home.”
The man looks down and realizes that he is faintly glowing. Not as much as the woman, and not nearly as much as the Man in white, but he knows that his light will grow. He looks up and sees his warehouse, now a forest of beauty, light, and the most beautiful music he’s ever heard. Although the warehouse looks just the same from the outside, with its red bright paint, as it did before, the inside seems to be endless. The space is no longer bleak and empty, it is full; full of possibilities, joy, beauty, light, and love. The man knows that none of this will die, he will have it forever. He knows that he will always have a friend in the woman, and that the Man in white will never, ever leave his side.
The man smiles, then giggles, and before he knows it, he is rolling on the floor with laughter. The warehouse is full.
Revelation 3:20- 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.
Ephesians 3:19- ...and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=1CC91NNU
God bless.
Ephesians 3:19- ...and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=1CC91NNU
God bless.
