Hope seems to spring anew in the most unlikely places. Sometimes, God speaks wisdom into our souls when we least expect to hear his voice. It is as if a bolt of thunder clapped within our very hearts; his words speak volumes in the common thread of daily life.
It is our daily life that God is concerned with. Just as we worry about our own children on a day to day basis, so too, is God concerned with every breath we take, and every move we make.
Sometimes, on the ‘ladder of life’, we get so busy climbing, we forget to appreciate the ‘rung’ where we are standing. The particular rung may at once seem commonplace, someplace we have been a thousand times before. In the midst of the ordinary, God is ever revealing divine truths, moments of buoyant expectancy we could never foresee.
Today, my youngest son climbed the ‘rickety ladder’ at his grandmother’s house in an effort toward spring/summer cleaning. He hoisted several boxes to the attic and hauled boxes of old magazines to the dumps. It was a seemingly ordinary task, one he has done many times before. In fact, it is a task that all three of my sons have done over the years. I never really thought about it, but today I saw it in an altogether different light. What had once been only a chore, now dawned as a blessing in disguise.
In my mind’s eye, I could see each one of my sons perched on the ladder on various occasions. I call it the rickety ladder because although it is safe, it wiggles just a bit when you climb it. The boys have always been patient on the ladder, and today I understood why. Their grandmother has always been just like a little kid at Christmas when those boxes come down from the attic. Her favorite treasures include a Peter Rabbit dressed in his little blue suit and shiny gold buttons, dressed and ready for Easter, and four red felt Christmas ornaments, hand crafted with silver glitter. Each one bears the name of one of her children, reminiscent of bygone days spent with Elmer’s glue and writing in script.
It struck me today that this rickety ladder was in fact, ‘rungs’ that professed a legacy of love. How often do we miss moments such as these, thinking we have better things to be doing, wishing to be on a different rung doing something else? There is magic in the ordinary moments we share with those we love. And the ‘mountains’ and ‘hills’ we climb each day with God are nothing less than extraordinary.
Our God is faithful. Our daily steps have meaning. God is master of the rickety ladder we call ‘life’. All we need is that tiny seed of hope, that small mustard seed to carry in our hearts day by day. The mountains sometimes loom large, and our fears may run deep. But with every step, at every rung, God abides with us. The climb is not only possible, it is awesome! And all along the way there are serendipitous surprises and unexpected joy. We just have to keep our hearts and minds steady even when our feet seem to be wavering. The one who guides our footsteps is always close at hand. It is his own hand that closes over our own as we reach for the next step higher…just as when we were little and went down the slide the first time. Someone climbed along with us to the top. It was a wonderful ride…and we were safe. And just like that, we keep climbing day by day…
Mathew 17:20. “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. ” Truly, I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
