{Day 8}: Take the Stairs

Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth. John 1:51, NLT

Self-discipline expert, Rory Vaden, spoke at our annual business convention a couple years ago. Sharing messages from his book, Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success, he encouraged us to stop looking for quick fixes, instant gratification, and escalators in life.

Most of us struggle with that a little bit, don’t we? Fast is just so much…faster. But we all know it’s often not best.

He challenged us to take the stairs instead–one focused, self-disciplined step at a time. Around our house, we started saying “take the stairs” when talking about doing things the hard way.

Today’s verse is a totally different way of looking at the concept of take the stairs.

Stairway leading to Montmartre, the highest point of the city of Paris, France

Just before we get to the scene in John 1:51, Philip, a disciple of Jesus, tells his friend Nathaniel to “come and see” the Messiah. Nathaniel has doubts about Jesus, and asks, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? So Jesus, in all His wisdom, tells Nathaniel some things about himself. Things He wouldn’t have known without supernatural knowledge.

Nathaniel then believes He is the Messiah, and Jesus says, That was nothing compared to what’s coming. You will see much greater things!

I tell you the truth

With this phrase, Jesus calls attention to an important affirmation. He’s saying, Pay careful attention to this.

You will all see heaven open

Scholars disagree on whether Jesus meant this literally or figuratively. Either way, Jesus’ work on earth gave human beings a glimpse of heaven.

Revelation 1:7 speaks of things yet to come with, “Look, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him…”

And the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man

Remember Jacob’s dream?

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12

The one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.

Jesus says now He is the ladder between heaven and earth. He is Jacob’s ladder to us, and angels continually assist Him for the good of His followers. When Nathaniel understands Jesus as the link between heaven and earth, he will have seen greater things.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. He alone bridges heaven and earth.

I hope this verse gives you a picture that sticks to your thoughts today, a picture of Jesus standing as the only stairway on earth that reaches to heaven. Take the stairs!