“And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12).
All men feel the earth and heaven touch at the horizons of the distant past and future; but we ought to feel that the present moment of time and this bit of the world’s surface are linked with heaven too. This is what the ladder meant for Jacob. The moorland waste where he lay, and Laban’s home, toward which he journeyed, were as near God as his father’s tent. For the one who trusts in God, earth is linked with heaven in several ways.
First, by God’s daily providence. His loving eye is ever upon us, His ear always open to our cry, and His angels go to and fro throughout our world, performing ceaseless ministries. “Every good gift and every perfect (act of giving) is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas. 1:17).
We are also drawn heavenward by our Saviour’s mediation. As He intimated to Nathanael, His own nature is uniting God with man, and especially His Ascension glory as the man Christ Jesus, is the one great connecting link. “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).
We are linked as well to our homeland by unbroken fellowship. We should practice the sense of God’s presence, often stopping ourselves amid our ordinary avocations and interests to say, aloud when possible, “God is near, God is here.” In all likelihood we are daily living amid the glories of the eternal world; but our eyes are blinded. Oh, that by humility and purity we may become more sensitive, and awake to the things that are unseen and eternal! Lord, open our eyes, that we may see! (2 Kings 6:17). The Lord Jesus said to His disciples on the night of His betrayal, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).
Finally, we should be drawn by holy yearning. When Jesus ascended, He unrolled a path behind Him, along which we shall one day travel to meet Him. Hope treads that glorious Ascension’s ladder; and as she does so, again we see the heaven opened, and our destiny unfolded at Christ’s right hand. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” Colossians 3:1-4.