GodReflection: How About A Better Way?
It was a time of excitement. Radio and television news channels kept the dream before our eyes and ears. On May 25, 1961, our President JFK promised before Congress and to all of us that he would do all within his power to place one of our citizens safely on the moon before the end of the decade.
Eight years passed—then the day arrived. We gathered around televisions and
radios, on July 16, 1969, at 1:30 in the afternoon, in anticipation. The Apollo 11 space craft powerfully emerged from smoke, fire, and noise. Then we witnessed Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins ascend toward the heavens.
That event recorded in history, as exciting as it was, pales in comparison to another ascension prior to radio and television coverage, yet also recorded in history.
Unlike the ascension from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the ascension that shapes all history was from Bethany a little less than two miles outside of Jerusalem. Although Jesus told his eleven close friends and students that he would return to Father God, I suspect his ascension took them by surprise.
Amid final instructions, Luke—doctor and historian—records the event as told to him by those who witnessed Jesus ascend to the Father to take his place as King and Ruler of our world. His mission is to lead the restoration of all creation back to God’s perfect state of creation.
Listen as Luke tells the story.
When they were together for the last time they asked, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?”
He told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all 
over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”
These were his last words. As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there, staring into the empty sky.
Suddenly two men appeared—in white robes! They said, “You
Galileans! —why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly—and mysteriously—as he left” (Acts 1:6-11).
I must also include Luke’s summary statement from his gospel with the one above that he cites from his Acts of The Apostles:
He then led them out of the city over to Bethany. Raising his hands he blessed them, and while blessing them, made his exit, being carried up to heaven.
And they were on their knees, worshiping him. They returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy. They spent all their time in the Temple praising God. Yes (Luke 24: 50-53).
Prior to Jesus ascension he promised his followers he would return, and we will join with him to make His ascension our ascension.
Paul, the apostle, tells the church in the city of Thessalonica how we will make Jesus’s ascension our ascension. He paints the portrait of people who rush out from their city as they go to greet 
the return of their victorious king. Together they return in celebration of peace, joy, and victory, that is their new reality.
He wants us to wait in excitement and with great anticipation of the day we make His ascension our ascension. So, he writes about the return of Jesus as we ascend to meet him:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever (I Thessalonians 4:13-17).
May we trust Jesus and look with great anticipation to the day we will greet the return of our victorious king. Together we will celebrate peace, joy, and victory, that will fulfill our new reality as we join Jesus and all his children to enjoy Our Ascension made possible by His Ascension.
How about it, isn’t that the Better Way to live?
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on His Ascension Our Ascension.
God Reflection 