I have some friends whose son left for college for the first time last September. Oh how his mother wept and even his father didn’t know what to do with himself. And Michael did everything he could to keep his proud eighteen-year-old frame composed. But every one of them were flooded with emotion.
Why? What was it about this moment of leaving for college that was so important? Maybe it had to do with the empty nest syndrome, of the start of adulthood or just the fact that this was such an important milestone in this young man’s life.
But whatever it was, the moment his car disappeared over the familiar horizon at the end of their street, the first thing his mother said was, “I wonder when he’ll be back again?”
Indeed, despite all these important worries, concerns and crisis of any departure, the real thing on everyone’s mind is when will he come back!
So it is as the disciples witness the Ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven. Afterwards they must have stood there, their mouths agape, staring up into the heavens and longing for the moment when he would return, as promised, at the end of time.
That’s the way it is for us, the modern-day disciples of the Risen Lord.
Amidst all our sufferings and the confusions, and even amidst the multiple joys of this world, we look to the eastern sky and long for him to return!
That’s why on the best of our days we live as men and women awaiting their master’s return…prepared at any moment for his judgment!
You remember the parable of the unjust steward who in his master’s absence extorted money from his fellows. Remember what happened to him?! Or the servant who refused to invest and gain a return on the talents the master had entrusted to him? Remember his fate! And do you remember the foolish virgins, who while waiting for the bridegroom let their lamps go out! God forbid we be like them, unready for the master’s return and worthy only of condemnation!
Rather let us be like those first disciples, looking up into the sky…ever ready and ever longing…waiting, as we will shortly pray, in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!
