Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Word Filled Wednesday: Stairway to Heaven

Genesis 28:12
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

This is the dream that Jacob has early in the Old Testament, and it talks about angels going to heaven by way of a stairway.  It would seem that the angels had a choice to stay in heaven or descend to the earth, or perhaps they were descending to do God's will.

As a child, this was an image that I took quite literally.  I would often sit in the grass, and look up at the clouds, in the hopes that I would catch a glimpse of the staircase, or perhaps see an angel peeking over the edge of the clouds back at me.  Such simple faith I had back then.  No concern that this imagery might merely be symbolic or allegorical.  To me, that staircase was real, those angels were real, and if I looked hard enough, I would see them climbing.

We too have a type of stairway to Heaven, in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We have a choice to believe that His death paid the price for our sin.  That is not to say that it is not still God's will that we try to live a pure and holy life here on earth, but our ability to climb the stairway to heaven in based in our trust in the triune God.  Perhaps we need to have that same steadfast faith I had as a child, the faith that this staircase is also real, and that I someday will be climbing it.