A Day-by-day devotional

February 23, 2023

Spiral staircase

Chronological One Year Bible Reading Plan: Numbers 5-6

Scripture of the Day: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

If you have ever climbed up a church steeple, or a castle tower, you would have noticed that most staircases are spiral. When you go up a spiral staircase, as compared to a straight one, you wouldn’t really have an overview of how near you already are or far away you still are from the top. You are unable to see your destination. You just have to keep on climbing until that last step comes into view.

For this reason, regular vertical staircases are often of an advantage if you would like to know where in the climb you currently are. Often, it helps to look back and see how high you have already gone and look forward to approximate how many steps still lie ahead. That would be ideal. However, in life, we are mostly dealing with spiral staircases which do not allow us to do that.

When we are climbing the staircase of life, our view of the climb‘s summit is hindered. Unless we know and count the number of steps, we wouldn’t really know how far or close we are to the apex. Due to that, in the middle of the climb, you might feel disheartened that you aren’t going to make it. If it’s a high tower you’re climbing, and you already feel exhausted, you might decide to just turn around and cut the climb short by heading back. Unknowingly, you might already be quite near the top.

We each have goals and aspirations in life. There are prayers that we are hoping to get answered. When we climb up the spiral staircase on the way to achieving these hopes, it is insignificant whether we lose physical sight of the destination. We may not see it up ahead, but we just have to keep on climbing. What is most important is, that we do not lose sight of our hope. When we tuck our hope in our heart, no matter how difficult or exhausting the climb, we would be motivated to keep going.

You may be worn out in the body. You could be burdened in the heart. You might be consumed in the mind. But you have to push through the climb. Your healing and rest may just only be a few steps ahead. It is thus not time to give up.

As the Apostle Paul exhorted, “We live by faith and not by sight.“ We may groan about and get frustrated of the hardships we encounter in life, but we should keep on walking and climbing, even when we do not see. After all, even without seeing, we already know what we are hoping for. We should therefore strive to get to where our hope lies.

Reflection: Do you at the moment feel like turning back and not finishing your climb? Is your burden too heavy to carry? Do not head back to where you have already been. Just pause and take a rest if you need to. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and heavily laden. And I will give you rest“ (Matthew 11:28). Rest on Jesus. Then, continue the climb.

Prayer: You see my suffering, dear Father. Sometimes they are too hard for me to handle that I already want to give up. Please do not let go of my hand. You are the lifter up of my head. You are my strength. Amen.