Life is like a ladder in many ways.
You start at the bottom the day you are born.
When you open your eyes for the first time, the first thing you see is a ladder that reaches to the sky, and you decide then and thereafter whether to climb that ladder or stay on the ground.
If you decided to climb that ladder, there will be many levels that you can step off and live your life the way that level has to offer, but you can’t always step back onto the ladder and continue to climb.
There will be times when you will miss a step and fall back down—sometimes only partway, sometimes all the way down.
But you get back up, determined to climb that ladder all the way to the top.
When you get to the top, you stop and look back down to see where you have been, but you cannot go beyond the top because you are weighed down with money and material things.
So you must descend back down to that last level and leave all of it there for posterity, then step back up the ladder to go beyond the top.
There to greet you at the top will not be money or material things, but the Lord and family and friends with outreached hands to help you take that last step beyond the top.
There you will realize they have always been by your side as you climbed that ladder of life.
Keith Keisel
Ephraim
