Assurance of the Ascension
     After the Resurrection, the risen Lord instructed his followers not to leave Jerusalem.  It was there, Jesus said, that they would receive “the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4).  What was that promise?  It was that they would be baptized not with water but with the Holy Spirit.
     Shortly after that utterance, Jesus was “lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (vs. 9).
     The Ascension reminds us that even though Jesus isn’t physically present on earth, as the living Christ, he is as near as we allow him to be.
     Jesus’ Ascension offers us the assurance that God is now available to all people all the time.  He lives as a guiding, loving Spirit in our midst.