This is a very personal letter. Frankly, I sense most of these letters will be personal. I could say that I care about you, but that seems too simple and much too artificial. But I, of course, do care about you. I show my concern for your life mainly by the fact that I am writing to you, not merely by the individual words. See, it is not the words that show you I care about you; it is the fact that there are words written for you in the first place. I hope that makes sense. To the personal narrative, I place my pen.
To counter a Neoplatonist argument, the fifth century theologian Augustine once said, “The only way one can ascend to God is if he has descended to us.” I recognize that Augustine’s quote refers to the spiritual realm, but I have a physical experience that reminds me of this spiritual truth.
During my elementary school days, I attempted to ascend a tree the size of my school’s flagpole. I was eight and a half years old when the ascension began. Of course, it was at this stage in my life when I kept track of the halves in my age. Nevertheless, it all started when my homeschool pal named Hayden invited me over to play. Hayden was thin as a thread and tall as a tower. His bushy-brown hair engulfed his blueberry eyes, revealing only a quirky smile and an oblong nose.
Hayden summoned me over to his humble habitat to play our favorite game: Tree Ascenders. As a homeschooler, Hayden used big words like ‘ascension’ or ‘ascenders.’ My methods proved to be true once he led me to a gnarled ten-foot tree. Hayden always explained the rules of the game as follows: In order to win, you must ascend the tree faster than your opponent. In order to lose, you must ascend the tree slower than your opponent. I always wondered why Hayden had to add an anti-thesis to every rule. Must be a homeschool thing. Nevertheless, Hayden proudly proclaimed, “Cam, my record last time was one-hundred and forty-eight point sixty-four seconds last time, beat that!” To which I replied, “I’ll climb this tree twice before you can say that number again!”
And so, as my embellished words took their ascension into the ear of Hayden, I began my ascension up the bark of the tree. The tree had antsy arms for ascending and slim stumps for standing. Against the odds, I monkeyed up the tree with ease… or so I thought. I was about four Haydens high in the tree when I heard a paralyzing noise: ‘Bzzzt, Bzzzt.’ That was the buzzing sound of a babbling baby hornet.
As I placed my hand on the next branch, the sound of one hornet erupted into hundreds of hornets screaming that same sound in unison towards me. I snatched up my hand, which caused a type of domino effect: the moment I yanked back my hand, my back flew away from the security of the tree, thus making my ascent upwards a tragic descent downwards. Time took a break as my body succumbed to the laws of gravity, and I quickly became a feast for the fertile soil below. Yes, there was soil below me; but in all actuality, I ended up landing on a mountain of freshly sliced firewood. I rocketed into the woodpile and provided the first form of heat the virgin firewood had ever experienced. My right arm touched down on the woodpile first, and I ended up splintering my radius.
A day later, my arm was hard and blue. That was because I was wearing a cast. Looking back, I can now see why Augustine’s quote is so pertinent to my understanding of the spiritual realm. No matter how high I ascend in this physical world, there is always a chance of me descending. In other words, there is always room for a fall. In my scenario, I plummeted into literal timber. You however might be faced with figurative timber. Whether it is the timber of tragedy or the timber of trial, this life knocks us off our tree-high pride. But because God the Son descended for me spiritually, I can be assured of my ascension to God the Father, and I no longer have to climb trees to prove my depravity in it all.
Before my ink runs dry, let me ask you one question: Have you ascended to God today? That is, have you prayed to your Provider, Protector, Priest, and Prophet today? Did you ever consider that prayer is your way of ascending to God whenever you wish? I’d recommend you take up, or take down, your praying posture as soon as possible.
Let’s talk about prayer in our next time together.
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