A painter was working atop a tall ladder that leaned against the second-story gable of a house. A small boy discovered the ladder, and, as is natural for boys, began to climb. His mother, missing her child, was shocked to find him halfway up the ladder. As she stifled a scream, the painter looked down, saw the child, and instantly perceived the danger.
Signaling the mother to be quiet, he calmly said, “Sonny, look up here to me, and keep climbing.”
Rung by rung, he coaxed the boy ever higher: “Come on now, keep looking up, keep coming.” At last the child was safe in his arms, and the painter carried him safely back to the ground.
In a sense, each of us is somewhere on a ladder to heaven (cf. Genesis 28:132). If we look down, we may be terrified. If we look around, we may lose our balance. God says, “Look up to me; look up, and you will never be dismayed by whatever is down there.”
Let’s look up to Jesus, up to where our safety lies. Look up, and keep climbing!
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”
(Hebrews 12:2).
- Allen Webster, via THE SOWER, a weekly publication of the Arthur Church of Christ, Arthur, IL. Ron Bartanen, who serves as minister and editor, may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.arthurchurchofchrist.com
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