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My Silver Christmas Ladder-by Heidi McLaughlin

Posted: November 24, 2019

I’ve known her for forty-two intimate years and call her “she.” By the skin of her teeth I saved her from being discarded and thrown into a dumpster.  This beat up, rickety, paint splattered ladder became an important part of our family’s life.

After I cleaned her up and gave her two coats of dazzling white, she was the focal point at Christmas. Covered in garland, treasures and gift bags she stood out as the “belle of Christmas”.  Two weeks before Christmas in 1994 when my first husband Dick died playing basketball we ran out of spots to place funeral flowers. Friends used the rungs of the ladder to place flowers, and I was horrified so see “her” being desecrated as a reminder of darkness and pain instead of Christmas joy.

After I was remarried to my beloved Jack, it was time to face the reality of reviving Christmas and creating new joyful memories. Whilst rummaging in the basement for a shipping box, I saw “her” standing in a corner. Stripped of her beauty she gave me a gut wrenching reminder of a horrible Christmas. It was time to move forward. I took her into the garage, gave her two coats of gold and on her left side I strung fresh garland. I hung new ornaments that depicted joy and music and placed her in the middle of our home during the Christmas season.  For twenty-one golden years she was once again the “belle of the ball.”

So I picked “her” up, took her into the garage and gave her two coats of sparkling silver. I placed magnolia, pine cones and berry garland along her left side and included twinkling mini-lights. On the top fold-out step I’ve placed a beautiful picture of Jack and myself taken at a Christmas celebration at Sparkling Hills.

This time “she” displays a different story.  A story of the beauty and pain of refining. Silver is usually obtained as a by-product of the process of purifying other metals such as copper, lead and zinc. It is usually separated from its ores using a flotation process and then purified by smelting it at 961.8 Celsius. During the heat and refining process, the silver rises to the top.

So this Christmas “she” depicts the story of my refining and rising above my painful circumstances.  I’ve been through the fire and I pray that I’ve been purified once again to reflect the joy and love of Christmas. I want the world to know that God’s promises of healing and hope are real and powerful. Everyone that steps into my house and sees my ladder needs to get a glimpse of the Bible verse that says: “The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over” (Psalm 12:6).

I smile when I look at her standing right in front of me as I write this blog. She’s gorgeous and I can’t wait for my family to meet her. After all, life is all about refining and being transformed into beauty. “She” is a perfect example of the Bible verse: “ …are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

What painful experience in your life is refining you to become like sparking silver? Are you letting God have His way so that you will become even more beautiful than you can ever imagine? Trust Him to do that.

 

 

Posted in: Beauty from the Inside Out, Christmas, Christmas joy, Christmas ladder, circumstances, decisions, from glory to glory, God's love, God's promises, God's promises are true, Jesus, joy, recapture your joy, refined like silver, refining process, suffering, transformatin, transformation, trust Good