Girls in a Doorway, Women on a Threshold

Three little girl women from two different countries, I, the voyeur from a third, catch them suspended in that  moment between in and out, before and behind, the familiar and the unknown.                                                    

That threshold between the dreams of a child and the realities of a woman.

What are you thinking little one watching from your doorway?  You stand obedient at the edge of permitted passage, but I feel the weight of longing as I drive by. Do you dream of something more             each day your pink plastic slippers touch the earthen floor?

And you pig-tailed one, now safe from harm in a home not first your own. Where helping with laundry and sweeping the floor bring order to a young life once broken. Will you leave the past behind and find joy and thankfulness in simple tasks                        and fresh sheets on the line?

Oh vibrant barefoot one, child of lace and adobe, you have no idea how big the step you took out of the frame of your ancient world and onto the covers of my books. I bless your unknown name, and pray perhaps someday, our God of grace will grant us to meet,                          face to face.

                                 

I didn’t purpose to take pictures of girls in doorways, but it seems there is something about them that attracts me. I think the image stirs a longing in me for the hopes and dreams of women everywhere—the forbearing mother in desperate Sudan, the tenacious woman protecting her daughter from Taliban, the grieved woman in China who bears a daughter, even the diamond studded mother on her knees in prayer for an addicted daughter. . .

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Will you join me as I ask the Lord to choose from my heavy heart, some woman to grant favor to this day.                                                                                                                             

She may be on the threshold of a decision and needs to find courage, or deep in the Valley of Achor, (Trouble) seeking  the Door of Hope (Hosea 3:15), Lord, you know.

Lift her up; shine your face upon her in her need, that this day, she may know that YOU are her LORD.

And for you, friend stopping by, may you also find grace and wisdom either to step through, or retreat from whatever doorway stands open to you today.

Blessings in the joy and hope of the Lord,

Marcia