Let me tell you the story of how I let Jesus into my heart.

You see, before I met Jesus, my heart was a horrible place to be. The stench of hate was everywhere, and you just couldn't get rid of the smell of bitterness. Envy was strewn all over the floor, and there were spots of jealousy all over the walls. Worse, it was cluttered with anxiety and you couldn't walk very far before tripping on some form of burden or other. It was really such a mess. There were stains of sin on everything, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wash those stains away. You can imagine the state I was in. Everyday, coming home to a heart like this. Sure, some days you could actually tolerate living in such an environment. In fact, if you tried really hard, you could ignore almost every ailment...except the sin. That was something which, no matter how hard I tried, I could never completely get over. Well, you know how it goes. I tried to entertain myself, tried to fill up my heart with things which could ease the situation. A bit of lust here, a little selfishness there. I even invited my friends over a couple times. It never seemed to help though. I would always end up alone ... me and my sin-stained heart. I almost gave up hope actually.

Then one day, Jesus came knocking on the door of my heart. You can imagine my surprise. Jesus ... the Son of God, visiting my heart! Of course, I was a little skeptical that it was Him at first, but as I cracked open the door, there He was, blazing in light and with the Holy Spirit standing behind Him no less! He asked me if He could come in, and boy, did my face turn pale. I took a quick glance around and saw the state my heart was in. This was no place for the Son of God to visit! I looked ashamedly at the ground and explained to Jesus that maybe He should come back in a while, after I had a chance to clean up. He just smiled and assured me that He wanted to come in anyway, that is, if I would let Him. Reluctantly, I opened the door. I expected a gasp or some sign of shock from Jesus...but He just strolled in. He took a quick look around and silently shook His head. At this point, I knew what He was thinking... He was disappointed with me...and all I could do was look at the ground. As I stood there, He walked over to me and placed His arm on my shoulder. As I looked into His face, I saw, for the first time, that He was crying. He opened His arms, and He hugged me.

Even though I was filthy, dirty beyond belief from all those years in the darkness of this broken heart...He hugged me. The tears were flowing freely from my face. I couldn't believe that Jesus loved me. "Why didn't you let me in sooner?" He asked through the tears. "Lord, you never came!" I cried. "No my child...you never listened" was His gentle reply.

Well, today my heart's a much better place. I spent a lot of time redecorating with Jesus' help. Man, you should have seen Him - throwing out all the trash I had lying around, fixing up the all the broken dreams and even soothing my painful memories. Of course, He didn't do all the work ... I had to do a whole bunch of stuff too, like listening, obeying, and actually trying to do all the stuff that Jesus did. It was really cool. He would come hang-out, and we would spend time in prayer, and worship and we would even read the Bible together.

After a while, I even let Him move in, and of course, you know how the Son of God has to have his choice in decor. I didn't object of course...He has such good taste. The carpet and walls are all now crimson (it was the logical choice, since it was the only thing that would wash away the stains of sin), and you should see what he's done with the lighting! It's so bright, it's unbelievable.