Stairway to Heaven
Jesus connects heaven and earth.
Jesus is God almighty who has the power to open the kingdom of heaven to send angel armies on their missions. What makes him good is that in his grace and mercy he opens the kingdom of heaven to receive all believers, and uses angels, and other people, and troubling circumstances, and the future, and all powers to help connect you to him and heaven now and forever. “You shall see heaven open,” he promises, “and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
Jesus promises to do for you what he did for Jacob, a man fleeing from troubles he had made for himself and wondering if God was with him. Angels appeared to Jacob in a dream, ascending and descending a stairway to heaven signifying that God was still with Jacob and he didn’t need to be afraid. We take comfort in that truth, yet more than that we believe that Jesus is the stairway to heaven, and connects heaven and earth as the Son of Man in human flesh.
Those so self-sufficient, like Jacob had been, that they think they can take care of their own destiny and climb their own ladder of success to eternal life fall miserably short. Those so self-centered, like Jacob had been, that they think of themselves before others never see a Savior or hear his calling because they are too busy looking in the mirror. No wonder Jesus would later tell Philip, Nathanael, and the disciples, “The one who loves his life will lose it … whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me” (John 12:25,26).
Whom do you love more? Yourself or Jesus?
Maybe a song called “The Summons” will help you answer. It asks in words of Jesus:
“Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?
Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around
Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?”
(“The Summons,” written by John L. Bell and Graham Maule. GIA Publications, Chicago, IL. 1987.)
Jacob learned, through the gracious call of God in a stairway to heaven, to say, “Yes!” It meant leaving himself behind, but by doing it he gained so much more.
PRAYER: I see the stairway to heaven in you, Jesus. I see you coming to me, believing in me, leading me by your gracious mercy. On the days I can’t see as clearly then come even closer to me. Abide in me. Stay with me. Guide me. And then let me follow your ways more than my own. Amen.