Margaret's Kitchen Door

Margaret Chen knocked on her neighbor Ruth's kitchen door every Tuesday morning for three years. The first time, she came asking to borrow a cup of flour — her hands trembling, her marriage falling apart, too proud to say so. Ruth handed her the flour and said, "Come back anytime."

So she did. The next week, Margaret came seeking more than flour. She sat at Ruth's scarred oak table, coffee warming her hands, and finally let the tears come. Ruth just listened. Week after week, Margaret kept knocking — through the divorce papers, through her daughter's rebellion, through the long December when she wasn't sure she could keep going.

Ruth never once failed to open that door.

Years later, Margaret told her pastor, "Ruth taught me how to pray. Every time I knocked, she answered. It finally occurred to me — if a neighbor with her own troubles never turned me away, how much more would the Almighty?"