Upstairs Downstairs

To most people who don’t live in a flat or a bungalow, it would be something of a challenge to count how many times we use the staircase: dozens of times in a week, probably millions in a lifetime.  We take it for granted that some things are - by convention or habit - ‘upstairs’.

You may remember the TV series ‘Upstairs Downstairs’.  It was set in an age - still just within living memory - when social convention presented more distinct definitions of these words.  In larger houses the rooms where the householder and his family spent their time were ‘Upstairs’ while ‘Downstairs’ meant the lower part of the house, the province of those of lower degree who made the whole operation ‘tick’: the housekeeper, the cook and the general servants.  There was even a ‘between stairs maid’, whose duties involved some tasks in each sector.  It was a time of definite social structure: those in each class knew their own place and knew where to find the other class.  If you were summoned to speak to the boss, you went to the important part of the house, you went ‘upstairs’.

The Jews of Biblical times knew that God was to be found in the Temple.  Indeed, one part of the Temple was so steeped in God’s presence that only the priests were allowed there ... and that only on special occasions.  It was called the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:3).  In His earthly ministry, Jesus turned many earthly conventions upside-down, and this was perhaps the greatest.  “Where two or three gather in my name,” He said, “there am I with them.” (Matt. 18:20).  When Jesus was no longer with his disciples, the Holy Spirit came to be with us constantly (John 14:26).

In that famous hymn ‘Immortal Love, forever full’, John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “We may not climb the heavenly steeps to bring the Lord Christ down.” On the face of it, these words might indicate a prohibition, suggesting that we aren’t allowed to go ‘upstairs’.  But if you find these words in a hymn book, you will see that they are followed by an equal futility of searching the lowest deeps for our Lord, and the next verse explains that, rather than our being forbidden to search for God, we have no need to search.

Through the Holy Spirit, God is with us already; all we have to do is acknowledge His presence.  Later in his hymn, Whittier refers to a miracle that Jesus performed (you can read about it at Mark 5:25-34) when he reminds us of the closeness of God’s healing power, using the words, ‘We touch Him in life’s throng’.

We can know God’s presence in every part of our lives ... even those countless times when we’re going upstairs and down!