Happy Ascension Day – hope you feel uplifted!

Today is Ascension Day when we celebrate the ascension of Jesus to heaven 40 days after his resurrection.

I never was sure why it was such an important Christian festival until I helped out at an Alpha course and one of the delegates said to me ‘so if Jesus is resurrected, is he still walking around now? Where is he?’ and I realised how important the Ascension is!

Acts 1:9-11

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Prayer for Ascensiontide
Risen Christ, you have raised our human nature to the throne of heaven: help us to seek and serve you, that we may join you at the side of the Father, where you reign with the Spirit in glory, now and for ever. Amen

My friend Rolf has written a great blog about why the ascension is an important but often neglected Christian feast day: http://thefamouswolf.blogspot.com/2011/06/importance-of-ascension-day.html I commend it to you but in the meantime….

Here’s a fun video on the theme of ‘ascension’ (sort of!), some engineers managed to recreate the floating house from the film ‘Up’, a bit of uplifting inspiration!