Stairway to Heaven

The staircase was wide and made of stone. If you craned your neck, you could look up at the sixty-foot high ceiling of the Great Hall and grasp its enormity. If you looked around, you found yourself in a sea of hundeds upon hundreds of others who wanted the same thing you did. You all wanted to get in.

Everyone was lined up for the first test to determine whether the "Golden Door" would open for them. When it was your turn, an examiner slipped a tool - sometimes a buttonhook, sometimes a hairpin, other times just a finger - under your eyelids and turned them inside out. If the inner eyelid was inflamed, indicating a contagious infection of trachoma - a cause of blindness and death - you were sent away and forbidden to climb the stairway.

Those who passed were screened as they climbed the steps and categorized by the watchers. If you had trouble breathing your jacket was marked with a "P" for "physical and lungs" in blue chalk. If you stumbled or had a limp your letter was "L" for "lameness." Wandering in a confused state would earn you an "X," indicating a feeble mind. A circled "X" was for definite signs of mental defect. Those with letters were pulled out of line.

The stairs opened into the Great Hall where you were queued in a maze of railings for hours. At the end of the line each individual approached his questioner, who was seated at a high desk. This was the applicant's personal judge, and you had to convince him you were socially, economically and morally fit for entry. A wrong answer would bring out the blue chalk and the letters "SI" for "special inquiry" were marked on your lapel. Then you were pulled out of line, at the last minute, to await interrogation by the Board of Special Inquiry.

Correct answers earned the entry of your name into a ledger, and you were allowed in. Allowed into a country you believed had streets paved with gold. Reality struck quickly: as one Italian immigrant put it, "Not only were the streets not paved with gold, they weren't paved at all. And we were expected to do the paving." Even so, compared to the poverty, lack of freedom and dearth of opportunity in the old country, making it through Ellis Island was a chance to experience heaven on earth.

There is a real heaven, but the entry requirements aren't as intimidating and the reward is infinitely greater than any "heaven on earth." Admission is based on your belief in the deity of Christ, that he died to atone for your personal sins, and your repentance for your sins. The reward is an eternal life devoid of tears.

The simple requirements for ascending the real stairway to heaven are regarded as foolish by those who deliberately ignore the message. It's hard to believe, but true, that they prefer to roam hopelessly with blue chalk letters on their coats rather than accept the gift of a peaceful eternity with God.


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