Forty days after Easter Christians celebrate Ascension Day, remembering that Jesus returned to His Father, and left His disciples waiting in expectancy for the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower them for their new mission of spreading the Good News of Jesus throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.

We shouldn’t imagine Jesus ‘powering off’ from the ground like a rocket and disappearing into the clouds, the disciples watching as His feet eventually disappear from view. What happened is a great mystery, Jesus returning to be with His Father. The book of Acts tries to put the experience of the disciples into words that would be understood in the first century. All we can know is that Jesus is with us now in spirit, and He is with His Father also, waiting for the day when He will return to bring in the Kingdom, with all its blessings, for all eternity.

Almighty God, while it is a great mystery to me, I believe that Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, ascended to heaven to be with You once more. Help me, therefore, to seek Your dwelling place with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and so continually dwell with You, with the Saviour and with the Holy Spirit. Amen.