The door to the local baptistery truly became the gates to paradise for members of the Florentine congregation as the hope and promise of eternal life surely did lay on the other side of its waters. As beautiful and haunting as the door’s images, the hopeful minds of parents carrying their children through the gates to be ushered into the Kingdom of God can be just as jarring. No angel with flaming sword guarding this path, Ghiberti’s gates swung wide to receive all who wished to pass on their beliefs to the next generation.