Come to Call

The other day, my spouse and I were joking about the prospects of a certain important person coming to visit us. "Can you imagine?" my husband laughed. We'd be calling, "Watch out for the big step!"

We have old stone stairs. They are different heights. One is actually three inches higher than the others. So we always subject our guests to a hearty shout, "Watch out for the big step!" It's a point of amusement by this time. But we realize it would actually be a source of embarrassment, if we had to shout such a warning to a very important person.

This got me thinking about how we act when we want to impress someone. We go around and clean up. We hide certain things. We might even tear down a staircase and erect a new one with proper step heights (depending on who was coming to call!).

In the book Austerlitz, one little ghetto experienced this clean-up act to a point of uneasy ludicrousness. Here were imprisoned Jews, suddenly treated to parks, window boxes, a new theater, and all other manner of loveliness and leisure, just because some important European government officials were going to make a visit.

And so it goes. The more important our visitors, the more we put on airs. Hide. Clean up.

In Isaiah, we are told to make way for the Lord of all creation. An important visitor. The most important visitor of all time and space. How do we make way? By cleaning up? By hiding? By rearranging?

No.

"Watch out for the big step!" we must call. And invite the Lord of All to ascend the crooked stairways of our souls.


Garden Fire artwork by Gail Nadeau. Used by permission. Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.

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LL's Speak

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