Jacob’s Ladder
The scaffolding of the soul.
My quiet residential neighborhood is undergoing a massive skyscraper boom. There is not enough housing for the people who want to live in this city, so the powers that be have declared that no amount of lot square footage is too small to go deep.
By this I mean a handful of cottages and a two story commercial building on the corner less than half a mile from my home have been demolished and shall now become the site of a 262 unit luxury apartment complex.
At first I was appalled along with my neighbors who signed petitions and showed up at city hall meetings—the resident NIMBY’s (Not in My BackYard) opposing drastic change. We lost. So, I have now set my mind to become excited about it all, and am charting the progress with videos and photographs in awe.
I’m in awe of the engineers and logistics managers who managed to excavate 100 feet down into the cerebral brain and skull area of a natural canyon, and not have anything collapse.
I am in awe of how the dirt was excavated by two forward facing earth diggers the size of dinosaurs. Their craning necks came within inches of each other as they each dumped a complete double trailer full of dirt every 17 seconds into waiting trailer trucks lined up three deep on the street. These trucks moved into place every 3 and a half minutes to receive their payload, and then left in a parade that lasted hours every weekday morning.
A street sweeper followed behind the cavalcade. It was like watching a choreographed symphony of massive tonnage equipment, dancing together flawlessly amidst palm trees, pines, and crepe Myrtles… all with an audience of crows and squirrels perched on the branches and telephone wires, just watching.
I was gone for ten days and came back to discover a builder’s crane that must be at least seventeen stories high placed right in middle of the newly excavated earth.
A giant American flag dangles from an upside down pole on the right hand side. On the far left is the boom with cables that will do the heavy lifting, and and in the middle is a five by five sky box where the crane operator will sit. Although I haven’t seen it happen yet, every day someone will have to ascend seventeen stories on a narrow red scaffolding to reach the place where all can be seen, and tools and supplies and equipment moved into place.
I’m calling the crane Jacob’s Ladder. In church camp we used to sing a song about Jacob’s Ladder, where every round goes higher, higher. It referenced a young biblical character named Jacob who had a dream. He is fleeing his homeland because his brother Esau is trying to kill him. He has nothing but a knapsack with him, and after eluding his vengeful brother he finally falls asleep exhausted, using a nearby stone for a pillow. One can guess that he isn’t feeling too secure about his future.
And then he has a dream, where a ladder falls from heaven. There are angels descending and ascending on it, and he hears the voice of God saying “I will not leave you until I have done what is promised in you.” (Genesis 28:10-17)
Jacob, in exile from his homeland, with nothing but a promise and a stone for a pillow, remembered Whose he was.
The promise of the dream replaced the fear of his circumstances. Or perhaps better said: The Reality of the dream replaced the Illusion of his circumstances.
So my question is: How long does it take to build a soul? How deep did your Creator have to reach to establish a firm foundation for you?
Who selected the site of your birthing? Your exile?
Who organized the cavalcade of events and people, lined up like trailers awaiting their
payload, to make sure your life has everything it needs to move in a certain direction?
There is a logistical magic symmetry in every cell in your being.
You were designed. You are no accident. You are a creation.
That ladder, your own staircase to heaven, is set against the very stone you are now using as a pillow. It is all the foundation God needs.
And so as I sit on my front porch, surveying Jacob’s Ladder, I ask myself out loud, perhaps like Jacob did:
“How long, oh Lord?
How long..
until I reach the top
with Thee?”
LBJ ~ Live. Breathe. Joy.
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Loved this! I am teaching a foreman on Scaffold Competent person to build his scaffolds safely. He was visited by TOSHA and has 8 violations coming. He is a man of God who has not learned to be safe but to survive in a world where he has to work hard for his family. I am blessed to help him to eliminate some of the violations. A scaffold has many parts to put together but in the end it saves many lives.