Stairs to NoWhere

On my first walks through my new town I was puzzled by the stairs to nowhere. I don't know that I thought about it a lot but I looked at this front lawns with the stairs leading to nowhere and did wonder what that was about.

Some of these stairs are well maintained. Others have had the stones flattened so its just a patch of large cut stone slabs in the middle of the front lawn. So I think it clicked in my head what they were when I came across the pole to tie the horses to. I realized those stairs where probably used to help you get into the buggy or on a horse or in a  model t.

As I was walking by these stairs to nowhere the other day, a song from Christopher Grundy started playing on my phone, I had downloaded this as a song from General Synod, When Jacob Awoke.

When Jacob awoke with the sky up above 

and his head on a stone, he said,
“Surely, the HOLY ONE is here in this place 

                                                     and I just didn’t know it ‘til now. 

This is none other than the house of God 

and this is the gate of heaven,
the gate of heaven, the gate of heaven.

This is a story of a stairway (NIV), ladder (NRSV). Jacob who has tricked his brother and father is sent out to find a bride. So he heads away from his family and stops to rest for the night with a pillow of stone for his head. Jacob dreams that he saw a stairway rising to heaven with angels going up and down. God was at the top and told Jacob that his descendants will inherit the land he is asleep on and his offspring will spread out throughout the earth and be blessed. God promises to be with him, to watch over him, to bring him safely home. When Jacob wakes up he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Genesis 28:10-22. The stone pillow became the sign of God’s presence in that place, which Jacob marked as the gate of heaven.

Thinking about this story changed how I looked at those stairs to nowhere. What if instead of heading to nowhere they are the stairway to heaven, the gate of heaven. Then when I pass by them here on my walk I have a moment when I can stop and be reminded that God is in this place. God’s gate, stairway is right in front of me. For this story of Jacob is about waking up to the presence of God, to awaken to God being here. These stairs in Hinckley remind me that surely God is in this place, I just need to wake up to experience the presence of the Holy One.