Image courtesy of thepathtraveler/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One of the pictures I encountered as I scrolled through Facebook this morning was of a staircase winding up to an open door. The doorway was filled with a beautiful blue sky and white, fleecy clouds. The word “faith” was superimposed over the staircase, and the comment below the picture focused on how we need to trust God and take that next step—-even when we do not know where it is going.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am scared of heights.  Regardless, in my journey, the stairs keep going up, and God seems to be taking me to even higher elevations. There always comes a time when I realize I can go no further on my own without reaching out for God’s hand, and then I am safe and can keep climbing without thinking about falling into an eternal “nothingness.”

My mind yesterday and today keeps returning over and over again to the 19 young firefighters who died in Arizona. I imagine how awful their death must have been. I grieve  and pray for the unspeakable loss they and their loved ones are enmeshed in at this point. I wonder over and over again, “why?”

I must rely on my faith to answer that question. When I look through my mind’s eye I do not see 19 scared men cowering under a piece of plastic anticipating and feeling unspeakable pain. I focus instead on seeing 19 brave soul’s reaching out for God’s hand as He comforts them and guides them over that top step into an eternity far removed from fire, smoke, and pain. I turn to faith again when I wonder how on earth all those families, many of them young children, are going to survive the pain of their loss—-the pain of not having a father, husband, son, or brother there to share their lives with. With a “faith focus” I “see” and believe that God is reaching out to them,  hugging them, and using His love and the love of others to help them cope with their grief, pain, and ongoing loss.

The Bible tells me when I am on earth I will “see through a glass darkly” and that once I leave this earth I will be given true understanding of what transpired on earth. I always imagine spending a lot of time asking God to answer all the “why” questions I asked in my previous existence.

This quote from Bill W. (As Bill Sees It, 1967, p.3)  helps me “climb the stairway of faith” when I am agonizing over why painful things happen:  “Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the moment you do not see.”

I will close on that note. May you believe more deeply and allow your face to be bathed in God’s light.

Please share your thoughts and comments about the role faith has played in your life. May God bless and keep you.