Heaven’s Ladder

“No matter how low you find yourself, no matter how lost you are, no matter how sinful, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far from God you are…no matter how deep the pit you find yourself in… look for the ladder…and it will be there to take you out.”

We stood at the bottom of an empty cistern. I had asked the teacher to show me as I had never seen one before. We were now ready to leave.

“Look,” said the teacher, “right now that’s our only hope.”

He was pointing to a wooden ladder, the same ladder we had climbed down to get to where we were. “Without that ladder,” he said, “we’d be stuck here at the bottom. And what if it only went halfway up to the top?”

“If it didn’t reach the top, it wouldn’t do us any good.”

“And if the ladder started from the top but only went halfway down ?”

“If it didn’t reach the bottom, it wouldn’t do us any good either. We’d be stuck here either way.”

“What about getting into Heaven ?” he asked. “How high is Heaven above the earth ? How great is the distance that separates man from God, and sin from the Most Holy ? How long would that ladder have to be…to get you into Heaven ?”

“As high and as long as the distance that separates man from God, a ladder between Heaven and earth.”

“It was that ladder that Jacob saw in his dream in Genesis 28, a ladder from Heaven to earth. It was the shadow of Messiah, that which joins Heaven to earth, and God to man. It can only work if the ladder touches both ends, the highest height with the lowest depth. So the Most High had to descend to the most low of depths so that those in the lowest depths could ascend to the highest heights. The Most Heavenly had to become earthly so that those who were earthly could become heavenly. And the Most Holy had to join Himself to the most unholy, the Holy One joined to the lowest of sins, the Most Sacred to the most profane…So God descended to the deepest depths of darkness, to the lowest rung of degradation and judgment.”

“The bottom of Jacob’s ladder,” I said, “that which joins earth to Heaven…”

“Therefore,” said the teacher, “no matter how low you find yourself, no matter how lost you are, no matter how sinful, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far from God you are…no matter how deep the pit you find yourself in…look for the ladder…and it will be there to take you out. The ladder will be there with its one end touching the bottom of your lowest depths, and the other end touching the Most High.”

Lesson: Wherever you are today, there is a ladder connecting you to the Most High. Find the first rung of Heaven’s ladder and take it.