In my life as an actress, I once played the Virgin Mary in a comedy. (Another story for another blog post.) I often said to my Joseph, “Say yes to Him, Joseph.” I thought of this while watching Kyle on “his’ horse at Horseshoes of Hope in Camby this week. We’d had such a difficult week, and Kyle looked so relaxed and happy on the horse. Because he isn’t doing band now, we signed him up for the fall session. We also signed him up for League of Miracles Saturday baseball games since he won’t need to go to band contests. And I realized Kyle loves these things, and if we’re making this about Kyle, which is what it needs to be about for our family, these are things he needs to be doing anyway. 

When a door closes, sometimes the doors God had in mind for you swing widely open into view. When a door opens in our lives, if it’s potentially good for us, we should say yes. It may be God opening that door, and we’re saying yes to him. If it fails, then I don’t think it was God’s door after all, and the failure, however painful, is instructive. It’s a signpost, a “don’t go here, go there” kind of instruction. With a prayer of “where, God?” and an open heart, it’s amazing the doors that fly open. It’s amazing the joy that awaits.

When you think of that failure, that closed door, the disappointment may still stab your heart a bit. But the joy of the morning can sit beside that and slowly, gently overtake it. For us grown-ups, that’s an effort sometimes – something to work on. For Kyle, it happens the minute he sits on a horse, gets a smile from his leaders, has a good time in his class. We should all look for ways to forgive, forget, and move toward joy as easily as my guy. We should all look for ways to say yes to the little joys of life.