The Gate That Wasn't Big Enough

On June 2, 2022, the RAF staged a spectacular flypast over Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee. Seventy aircraft thundered across the London sky in perfect formation. Over a million people packed the Mall, pressing against barriers, craning their necks upward. The police had to widen the security corridors three times that morning — the crowds kept swelling beyond every estimate. The gates of Buckingham Palace, those iconic iron barriers, were flung wide open as the royal household stepped onto the balcony. No one had to ask who was being honored. The sheer scale of the celebration announced it.

But here is what struck me: even with gates flung open, balconies extended, and corridors widened, the celebration still felt too small for the moment. The space could not contain the honor people wanted to give.

The psalmist understood this impulse at a far deeper level. "Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in!" The gates themselves must stretch, must rise, must become something greater than they were — because the One approaching is the Lord of Hosts, the Almighty, strong and mighty in battle.

No ordinary doorway will do. When the King of Glory draws near, everything that receives Him must expand to make room. Our hearts included. He is not a guest who fits quietly into our lives as they are. He is the Most High, and His arrival rearranges everything.