He is Ascended! Praise Him!

The infant room at my daughter's day care is run by this lady called Mrs. G. She is a middle-aged African American woman who is in total control of the often chaotic surroundings of her nursery. She has honed her skill in caring for "little ones" through her own life experience: she is a mother of three and has numerous grandchildren. Melinda and I have noticed that she is loving and efficient in her attention to all kinds of children. I have seen her simultaneously rocking one child in her lap, feeding another one a bottle, and using her foot to bounce a third child in a swing, a talent it would take me years to develop. No amount of screaming and fussing from the babies ever tips her over. She is good. We love Mrs. G.

Mrs. G is also a faithful Pentecostal and is very involved in her church. She occasionally likes to start up conversations with me about her church and her ministry when I come in to drop off Clare. Usually I just listen and make a comment or two in agreement, but I'm usually in too big of a hurry to engage her in a more involved manner. I'm also wary that, coming from such a different tradition than mine, we may venture into a topic on which we may disagree or that may need more discussion than casual parlance may allow. It's a silly hang-up, I know.

Today, however, I greeted Mrs. G by saying, "Our Lord is ascended!" She stopped for a minute, looking as if she was doing some counting in her head. "Is it already the 40th day?" she asked, shocked at how quickly time had passed. "Yes," I said. It's the celebration of the Ascension of our Lord." She responded, "Yes, our Lord left us and went up to heaven. But he promised to send his Spirit." Then, very matter-of-factly, she added, "And he had best do that, else we'd be in a heap o' trouble!"

Amen! Here was an ascension sermon straight from the mouth of a day-care worker who clearly knows what it means to depend on the "power from on high." It was a statement of faith straight from someone who knows her New Testament and how the divine economy works. Thank the Lord that Christ has ascended and has sent his promised Spirit. Let Mrs. G speak for the church today: we'd be in heaps of trouble if it weren't for Jesus' promises!

Did I mention we love Mrs. G?

(image: The Ascension of Christ, Hans Suess von Kulmbach b.1480)