What Next?
Thursday, May 18th, was Ascension Thursday – the commemorative day when Jesus took His one-way trip back to heaven from whence He came to earth as a baby.
Thirty-three years here – Jesus radically taught love, hope, and faith, healing people’s hearts and bodies, and showing us how to be successful in this life. And, BONUS, He ultimately gave us access to living with Him forever. THAT, my friends, is a boatload of making His life count for you and me!
So why did Jesus spend so much time focusing on His closest disciples when He was here? Wouldn’t it have been more efficient for Him to reveal Himself to “the world” in a big way?
He could have summoned political and religious leaders to witness His resurrection in a blaze of cosmic glory that would leave no room for doubt. Was He possibly missing His chance to reach the whole world in one grand worldwide spectacle?
There’s no doubt that Jesus loves every single person and wants everyone to come to know Him. But just as it was when He walked the earth, He chose to reveal Himself on a small, personal scale.
No grand, once-and-for-all gesture would accomplish what He wanted to do; only many daily small dosages of spreading His love in action and words made Him known.
Think about it. When God came to us as a helpless baby, He showed that He wanted to be one of us and one with us. Rather than overpowering humanity as a mighty, cosmic Lord, He quietly connected Himself to His family and His fellow Nazarenes. Daily routines that prepared Him for public ministry.
Then when He called His disciples, He did the same thing. He created a relationship with them — a relationship that taught them to love as He loved, a relationship that turned them into living examples of His mercy.
Best. News. Ever. For you and me! Jesus is still using the same strategy today. He reveals Himself “to the world” through relationships – our own relationships with the people around us.
Every time we reach out to someone, He is reaching out through us. Every time we offer someone words of encouragement or understanding, He is speaking through us. It is in our simple, everyday acts of love that Jesus can shine through the brightest in and through us.
Of course, we know we are fallible and certainly don’t measure up to Jesus. But Jesus took care of that wrinkle in His plan. He chose to reveal Himself in an especially powerful way every time we forgive each other and make amends – every time we reach out and encourage someone – every time we help others in words and in deeds.
So yes, Jesus ascended to heaven, and left us with the Comforter, His Holy Spirit, to abide in us and Who gives us the “octane fuel” necessary to be vessels Jesus uses to reveal Himself to the world.
He does it through YOU and ME! Maybe it’s time we amp up the reality of “Greater is He Who is in us than He who is in the world” (1 John 4:4) and be about the Master’s business on earth….as it is in heaven!