key to hearts

keys are no modern invention. they've been around for ages, locking things up, keeping people out, and being broken in various locks. they can be to a door, a padlock, a mailbox, or a car. either way, they grant you access to something--access that you and perhaps a select set of others also have. a key sets you apart from the masses in respect to the thing you have a key to; of all people, you can get through the door, you can retrieve what's inside, you can drive away in it.
however, i think it is more touching from a different perspective: having a key to something sets it apart to you. it's not a store to which the door you simply push open, but you must feel uncomfortable and out of place until you look like you're going to buy something. it's not a public square with odd-smelling people lying on the bench who you're embarrassed to talk to. it's not a workplace you go to to get worn out, stressed out and payed, and then leave uncomfortably. it's not the the grimy door to a free newspaper holder that hundreds of other people have touched in the last 35 minutes, having washed their hands or not. when you have a key to someplace, you belong there, and that place is thereby specific to you. it is always a joy and a relief for me to skip up the porch steps to my apartment here in Cambridge, and pull out my brass-colored key that matches the brass-colored doorknob. i insert and turn it, and i know that i am trusted here, i can relax, i don't have to worry so much. i can sit back, eat a bite, chat it up with loving people, and cool down after a long day. when you have to ring the doorbell, you have to prod someone, to disturb them from their current activity to come attend to your need, even if your need is merely access to the housing structure. that dependence is already a negation of belonging. you may belong in part, but never fully until you have your own key. that place can't fully belong to you until you have a key, until you have independent access to it.
similarly, i guess, jesus is our key to the deep peace and strength of our relationships with god and the holy spirit's belonging to us and us to him. when we have the key, when we have jesus, our foul smells are overlooked, because we can come in and take a shower, shave, wash up and put on a fresh set of clothes. that is the only true home we can have in this life, the only complete safeplace; god is not subject to fires nor thievery--people can't break in to god and steal our peace and comfort; not unless we walk out of god and surrender it to them.
that's why i love keys.