Shoes on the Back Stairs

We have back stairs in our house.
I don’t know how it began, but my children all kept their shoes there.
One pair of shoes to a step.
Even when they are away…and come home…they put their shoes in their spot.

I like to see their shoes on the back stairs.
If the shoes are on the stairs, then the person they belong to is home!
There is something so right about that.
Home for a weekend…home for a week…home for the summer…home!

A friend of mine, with daughters, but no sons, was in awe at the sight of our back stairs.
She was surprised at the size of men’s shoes.
They look like boats, she said.
I guess they do…but I’m used to it.

Once their shoes would have fit easily on their stair.
The high tops, the running shoe, the soccer cleat, the flip-flop.
Shoes for each stage of their lives.

Who wears their heel down on the outside?
Who wears their heel down on the inside?
You can tell how each one walks by the sole of their shoe.

I look at those shoes and remember drawing an “L” and an “R” on the bottom.
I look at those shoes and remember teaching them to tie their shoelaces.
It was always so hard to learn to tie when the shoe was on their foot.
I made a shoelace box, which seemed to solve the problem.

I punched holes on the lid of a shoebox…to resemble an actual shoe.
I laced it with longer shoelaces.
They could keep the shoelace box on their lap and practice tying shoes.
It was so helpful not to have their knee get in the way.

Shoes on the back stairs.
A living metaphor of their lives.
A stair for each shoe.
A stair for each phase of their growth.

For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(2 Peter 1:5-8)

A progression of Godly qualities.
This progression forms a Ladder of Faith.
Each Godly quality builds on the one before.

Goodness, Knowledge, Self-control, Perseverance, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness, Love.

A staircase.
A place to put our shoes.

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendents the land on which you are lying. Your descendents will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, 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 28:10-17)

The Ladder is Jesus.
Jesus is the bridge between us and God…His Father.
As we grow in the grace and knowledge of Him, we grow in Godly qualities.
We produce fruit…fruit that will last.

A staircase….a Ladder of Faith.
Instead of shoes…fruit.
Godly qualities throughout the different stages of our lives.

Moving forward…pressing on.
God is faithful.
We are not.

You can tell so much about our walk…by the state of our souls.
Worn down on the inside.
Worn down on the outside.

Only Jesus can redeem.
Only Jesus can renew.
He helps us walk on…secure…steady.
Climbing on the Staircase that is Him.

A Staircase for our souls.
If our shoes are on that stair…we are truly Home!