We all recognize Easter and if we have been in the church long we likely recognize Pentecost, which is the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit onto the church. There is another very important day of celebration that often gets overlooked, Ascension Day. This is the day that we celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven. We find the account of this in Acts 1:9-12.
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come backin the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
It is in this moment that we obtain the promise of Jesus coming back again. Jesus will return, we can count on that. However, we cannot just take this promise and ignore Jesus’s other promises and his actions of service to others, the least of these, during his time on earth. We need to follow the example of Jesus in the here and now while we eagerly await his return. It is important that we focus on the current and not focus only on the Kingdom come, else we become too focused on escaping this world and lose sight of serving the least of these and loving them with the love of Jesus. Let’s strive to embrace the here and now as well as the not yet nature of God’s Kingdom as we work together to reach others with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
~ Pastor Todd