Always

“And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to You.” John 17:11

A popular meme I read several times on Viber and Facebook goes: “The Feast of the Ascension is the day Jesus started to work from home.” 

In the 1st book of Acts, verses 6-11, we read about Jesus’ rise to heaven: Then they gathered around Him and asked Him, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After Jesus 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 back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” 

After Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, He showed Himself on different occasions to many, many people in the 40 days before his ascension to Heaven. Most probably, not all occasions of His encounters were recorded. He showed Himself to Mary and the other women, to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, to the disciples on numerous occasions, and then to 5000 people all at once. Then the disciples were eye witnesses of Him rising into the clouds! I would have liked to see that! But it would have been heart wrenching at the same time. Never to see Jesus again, never to be in His comforting, radiant presence. Never to be able to ask Him questions and to hear His answers.

But that is precisely why Jesus had to leave. So He could send His Spirit to be with each of us. Then He could be with us always until the end of time. We could always have His comforting, radiant presence about us. We can always ask Him questions and hear His answers. “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20) “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)