On My Father's Staircase

When I was a little girl, I would sit on the staircase and wait for my father to come home. Everyday I would hear the car pull up in the driveway and I’d rush to my spot on the stairs, sitting directly across from our front door, and wait for him. I’d hear the jingle of his keys and the all familiar footsteps as he walked up the front porch. As soon as the door was open and he was standing before me I would stand up, throw out my arms, and yell “catch me Daddy, catch me!”. Then with all the force my little legs could muster I would leap towards my dad, whether he was ready for me or not, because I knew without a doubt, that my father was going to catch me. I placed such confidence in his arms and their ability to never let me fall. I reminisce on that confidence and fearlessness with a bittersweet
nostalgia.

What is it about growing up that makes us stop believing in things that way?

When I think about that memory I understand fully what Jesus meant with his response in Matthew 18. His disciples asked him 

“who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” and he simply replied, “truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. 

When I think about sitting on my father’s staircase I realize that this state of unadulterated confidence that I had as a child is the type of faith God is alluding to when he tells us to be like children in order to enter heaven.

The older I get the bigger my problems feel. It is difficult to have child like faith when the terrors of adulthood are right around the corner with their bared fangs of responsibility. The monsters under my bed are actually just my bills I need to pay.

But what would happen if I treated my relationship with God the same way I greeted my dad when I was a girl? 

If I simply sat on the Father’s staircase and waited for him to enter the room, with the eager expectation that he’ll show up, I’ll never miss the arrival of his presence. If I greet him with open arms and leap into what he has for me with the confidence that he’s never going to let me fall then I will always land in the vision of his heart. And soon the daunting dilemmas of life on this Earth will become happenstance instead of hardship. So in a world full of hurting, broken, and stressed out people, I choose to sit on my Father’s staircase, and eagerly expect his arrival, and I invite you to do the same.

~Beau