God’s Ladder - Martin Wiles

As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. Genesis 28:12 NLT

My granddaddy loved a ladder.

He and my grandmother lived in an old house with high ceilings on the inside and an even higher roof on the outside. Yearly, my granddaddy painted the inside, and every few years, he painted the outside.

Out would come the six-foot ladder for the molding around the inside walls. For the walls, he concocted a contraption so he wouldn’t have to use the ladder. He attached a long handle to an already long-handled roller brush, and away he went. He did the same for the outside of the house.

But when it came to painting the eaves on the outside, the six-foot ladder or the extended roller brush wouldn’t do. That’s when he brought out his extension ladder and went to work. Even at 70 plus years old, he’d scoot up the ladder to paint the eaves and never think twice about it.

Until one day when he fell. Several large pecan trees grew in his back yard, one of which, at the time, had low-hanging limbs. Out came the six-foot ladder along with the saw. As he sawed, the ladder tilted. He went down … hard … and broke his leg.

Regardless of which ladder my granddaddy used, they all had purpose: to go up. Jacob’s ladder differed. As he ran away from the brother he and his mother had tricked into selling the family birthright, Jacob lay down to sleep. During the night, God, along with angels who ascended and descended a ladder, appeared to him in a vision. God told Jacob the land where he lay would one day belong to him and his descendants.

I use a ladder for the same reason my granddaddy did: to go up. God used one to come down. His purpose in descending was to allow His Son to take on human flesh and then sacrifice Himself on Calvary for our sins.

This coming down the ladder to us was undeserved. God didn’t owe us anything … nor did we deserve anything. Our sins had separated us from Him, but He chose to show mercy and grace anyway.

Our responsibility is to ascend the ladder to God, but there’s only one way: accept the payment Christ has made for our sins and commit our lives to obey Him.

Now that God has descended to us, we can ascend to Him. Have you?

Prayer: Father, thank You for the ladder from heaven that provides a way up to You.

Tweetable: What ladder are you using to reach God?

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