We have a spiral staircase outside. The stairs were damaged, terribly, after Irma. So much so, they had to be removed and later replaced. As I walk down them now, I am reminded of what they once looked like; impossible to walk on and crumpled. Now rebuilt, they are stronger and better than ever.
We are all so much like spiral staircases that have been damaged in a storm. I don’t know about you, but when I faced emotional storms, I felt like I had been crumpled and destroyed beyond repair. But Papa is in the restoration business, to this day. And He can take what is so crumpled and damaged and repair and restore what we believed to be irreparably broken.
I like to look at our staircase every day now, because I have a greater appreciation for all we endured. Not just damage from the hurricane, but the emotional storms. In 1997, Terry and I had been dating long distance, and we got so much of our relationship wrong. I thought in my heart, he was the one. But I didn’t understand why we didn’t make it. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t work things out and why the heartache had to be so severe.
Looking back, I can see I needed an awful lot of nurturing from the one place I needed it; Papa. Only He could fill that ache in my heart. Only He could restore what was lost. Only He could redeem what had been broken. Only in looking back can I see how I was so wrong looking for Terry to fill my heart, when I needed Jesus to be the one filling it. Terry was in a similar position. He was searching for Jesus and had not quite found Him yet. We were going round-and-round, like a spiral staircase.
“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” - Isaiah 43:19 (NLT)
I didn’t trust enough back then. God had to rebuild my trust and reshape my faith. Terry had to find his own path to seeking God, rather than the world. It would take us 19 years to get back to one another, and in the process, God was doing something new in both of our lives. But it took a really long time.
When I look at our spiral staircase now, I see Terry and me in it. I see what we once were, and now with the “new” staircase, I see what we now are. Just like the staircase, we too have been rebuilt, and we are stronger and better than ever.
The storms we face in life certainly aren’t fun, but if we could just cling to the verse above, and remember God has already begun something new. He will make a pathway through the wilderness. Papa is creating rivers in the dry wasteland. If He can do that, my sweet friend, He can do anything.
He can repair your broken staircase, too. So when you feel like you are going round-and-round; spiraling downward, trust. Give it to Him to rebuild.