OK, I didn’t know Ascension was today either. It’s not marked down on my calendar; I didn’t get a text reminding me of the holiday. None of the prayer sites I subscribe to alerted me (maybe I need to add to my list of prayer sites).
It’s not even a Sunday. It’s a Thursday, for goodness sake.Of course, that’s exactly why Ascension is always a Thursday. Think about it. Forty days after Easter, forty days when the risen Christ appeared to the apostles and the disciples, the 40th day is a Thursday. “He appeared to them over a period of forty days, speaking to them about God’s kingdom,” the Bible says (Acts 1:3).
That 40th day, his followers gathered together for a meal—a good reminder that some of the best spiritual things happen over a meal—and Jesus promised them that they would soon be baptized with the Holy Spirit, but for now he was leaving. Then while they were watching he was lifted up and a cloud took him up out of their sight.
I was reminded of Ascension this morning in an email from a church friend, a fellow member of our board. He was talking business—a meeting we’re having tonight, a couple of points he wanted to make, the sometimes boring but necessary nitty-gritty. And then he said, “How perfect that we’re doing this on Ascension Day. We’re still like those disciples gathering around him, looking for the Holy Spirit.”
My favorite painting of the Ascension is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the only part of Jesus it shows are his feet, with the disciples below looking up. I put myself there in that painting and pray, “OK, Jesus, I can’t always see all of you, but if I keep my own feet on the right path, listening for you, hearing your stories, traveling with the poor and the needy like you did, I can stay close to you.” Then I look to my fellow followers, like the group gathering at church tonight. May we not forget your feet!
Happy Ascension Day.
Photo credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
