Ladders and Ladders

Ladders and Ladders

Genesis 28:10-19
First Reading for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)

God has this knack for showing up in the places we don’t expect. For Jacob, it was in the middle of nowhere when he was on the run. He dreamt of a ladder (or a stairway or a ramp) going to heaven. Messengers of God were ascending and descending. The God stood beside Jacob and reminded this wayward man that the Almighty would be with him wherever he went. “I will keep you,” God said. And I think all that most of us really want is to be kept.

So instead of dissecting this passage or providing some sort of devotional thought, I am just going to share a few of the ladders that have popped up in my life recently. Without any real explanation, these are the places, the moments, and whatever other unexpected things that have reminded me that God is with me. I encourage you do to the same. Write them down even. Where have been those spots where you have felt God with you?

  • My entire experience at the Teens 4 Equality protest in which a group of teenage girls led 10,000 people in a peaceful protest march through Nashville

  • Monday morning runs with some of my students

  • The “I guess I found my peace again” bridge of “Everything Else Has Gone Wrong” by Bombay Bicycle Club

  • Front porch conversations with students and parents who we have mostly seen on computer screens for months

  • The perseverance of friends who are going through great trials

  • The people who brought us dinner when I was sick

  • The swelling build of “Marching Bands of Manhattan” by Death Cab for Cutie

  • The closing credits of WALL-E

  • Talking with my grandfather through a nursing home window

  • Running with my dad, hugging my mom, hanging out with my brother and his family, and my mom’s cookie cake

  • The bravery of so many in this world right now

  • Renée Elise Goldsberry performing “Satisfied” in Hamilton

  • Pearson’s Falls in North Carolina

  • Talking on the phone with my sister

  • Superman going to the ends of the universe to find one lost girl in Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King

  • Every snippet of a video from a student that made up Youth Sunday back in May

  • Morning smoothies

  • Writing things and finding out that I’m a little less alone than I thought

  • Talking on the couch with EA

  • Playing Mario Kart with my boys

  • Encouraging emails and texts

  • Being outside

  • And much, much more

Rescue

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