Steeple to Steeple

A steeple is something that began to be built on churches as early as the empire of Constantine in the 300s after Christ.

Steeples were built as high as possible—typically with a cross on top—making it higher than any other building in town. Today, in many villages and cities across the world, the steeple on a church still towers above any other building.

Are we still sending the message to come back to the cross, to look to God? How high is the steeple in my life? How am I looking to God and how is my life a steeple to lift Jesus higher and to point others to look to Jesus?

Are any of you going through a time of suffering? Are you in need of a miracle? In this world we do have sufferings, and at times it’s for a season. But, we also have miracles! We need to have faith and turn it over to God.

While we are suffering, God is still at work. How do we accept and surrender to God’s sovereignty—knowing He has a plan for our lives? God hears our prayers, cries, and groanings—then He answers in His own time and His way. At times, He just gives His sufficient grace to endure and keep going.

Let me tell you a story of a man who now lives in the Boston area, and how he learned to survive his tragic sufferings from steeple to steeple

This young boy, Andrew, lived during the time of Hitler. Andrew lived an idyllic life with his father, mother, and younger brother. His father owned a lumberyard in town, as well as their own home. Life was good. Then, Hitler started blasting in the streets. He took their home, and led his family with bayonets to the concentration camps. His mother and other relatives were murdered upon arrival. But Andrew remained with his father and brother.

One day, the prisoners were given orders to march in the freezing cold. As they were marching, Andrew became separated from his father and brother. Andrew was alone. He could not bear the suffering. He tried to muffle his cries of, “Papi, Tibi (his brother).”

Andrew remembered what his father told him the day they arrived at the concentration camps: “Keep yourself clean and don’t get sick. Act with integrity and honor. Whoever lives through this inferno—go home and wait for each other.” Home represents heaven. The inferno is the suffering of life. We are all pilgrims on life’s journey. When we get home, we’ll wait for our loved ones, as well.

Andrew could not bear to walk in the freezing cold with his heart broken from isolation from his family. A fellow prisoner said to Andrew, “See that steeple? Just keep your eyes on that steeple and reach there…and then the next steeple…and the next.” For Andrew, he learned a new tune, “Steeple to steeple!”

You can’t live in this cold world in isolation from Jesus Christ. Today, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be warmed by His love, His promising presence and strength to endure the cold sufferings of life.

I’m going home some day, after this life with its joys and its seasons of sufferings, and then I’ll wait for my family. But until then, I’m pushing up my steeple as high as I can to point others to Jesus. ~Jeanne DeTellis Loudon