The General Who Walked Through the Gate

On December 11, 1917, British General Edmund Allenby stood at the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem. After four centuries of Ottoman rule, the city had surrendered. Every conqueror before him — Kaiser Wilhelm II had insisted on it in 1898 — rode through on horseback or in motorcades, demanding the walls themselves be reshaped to accommodate their pride. A section of the wall near Jaffa Gate had literally been breached to let Wilhelm's carriage pass.

Allenby did something no one expected. He dismounted his horse and walked through the gate on foot. "I will not ride into Jerusalem," he reportedly said. "Only one has the right to do that." He entered the Holy City with his hat in his hand, on the cobblestones, like a pilgrim.

Allenby understood what the psalmist declared three thousand years earlier. When the ancient gates are commanded to lift their heads, when those doors swing wide, it is not for any earthly general or emperor. The gates of Jerusalem — the gates of every human heart — were made for one entrance alone. "Who is this King of glory?" the psalm asks twice, as if the answer deserves repeating. The Lord Almighty, strong and mighty in battle, yet willing to come not with chariots but with grace.

The gates were always meant for Him. Every other entry is just passing through. His arrival is the one they were built for.