A Trisomy 18 Journey - The Stairway

Lore's allegory, in memory of her son David, uses climbing a stairway with a seemingly endless series of doors to describe her grief.

Walking through grief can be like climbing a seemingly endless stairway, devastated and broken you find yourself at the bottom only to see the monumental task before you. With no choice you begin moving up the steps but soon come to a door labeled PAIN AND SUFFERING. None of us want to go through that door so we look for a way around it. Looking left, looking right, going down and coming back up, only to find that door again. It hasn't changed and we despair because we realize there is no way around it. So we bite the bullet and open it.

Oh, it is a lonely, cold and painful doorway and we weep, wail, and moan. We seek comfort in anyway we can get it. We cry out for God’s mercy as we walk through it. The door closes, only now we are on the other side of it. On this side is the comforting warmth of the Son, along with a little bit of His strength and courage.

Before we know it, there’s that door again. The process is repeated over and over as we move upward. However, we begin to notice that at the beginning of our journey, the doorways seemed so close together, every few steps or so. But each time we walk through a doorway, the next one seems it was a little farther away. We begin to experience longer periods of warmth, comfort, strength, courage and even wisdom between the doorways. Love, joy and laughter are restored in our lives as we grow stronger and continue our travel up the stairway.

Sometimes, we come to a doorway that we feel we are not ready for or comes too quickly after the last. Yes, we tire and doubt and we want to give up sometimes. But in our wisdom we have seen that beyond each doorway there is more. Faith and hope have been bestowed upon us now and deep within us comes the desire to keep going.

Our Lord is faithful and just. He promises He will never leave us or forsake us. For in our journey and beyond each doorway our Lord provides a piece of Himself. A piece of His love, comfort, courage, strength, wisdom, joy, faith, hope and even gratitude for us to hold as we meet each new challenge. For He is in us, carrying us, showing us the way through the doorways, providing all that is needed for us to sustain our journey up the stairway. He is keeping us looking up and bringing us closer to Him everyday. For the day will come when we reach the top and meet our Lord in His Heavenly place where we will abide in Him forever and ever.

Lord, I thank you…For Your love which sustains me through all; For my loss, through which I have come to know You; For Your patience with me as I learn and grow in You being aware that I sometimes act in ways that may not be pleasing; For the sacrifice You gave on Calvary, so that I may live with You always; For Your Word where I receive Your instruction; And for sending Your angel, my beloved David who will not return to me but I to him.

In Jesus Precious Name, Amen!