Have you ever been in a hot air balloon or taken a helicopter ride? I think this is the closest sensation that we will have to ascending to the heavens as Jesus did. Unlike an airplane, the balloon or helicopter gently rises from the earth and then moves in the direction the pilot wants to go. I imagine that this is what the apostles saw when Jesus ascended from the earth. At first, Jesus was gently lifted upwards and then drifted off from their sight.
When you are in a balloon or helicopter gently moving upwards, there is a sensation of being suspended between heaven and earth (unless of course you are scared of heights in which case, you probably feel sheer terror). But the point is that you are in a state of quasi-weightlessness. As you look around, all you can see is sky and the higher you ascend, clouds. In a balloon especially, one experiences the gentle breeze as the apparatus carries its occupants across the countryside.
Too often we are weighed down by life. We allow the travails of work, school, relationships, family, money, etc. to prevent us from seeing the light-heartedness of life. We get caught up in making a living that we fail to live. As a line from the movie Zorba, the Greek says, “Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die.” However, some people have already died because they fail to live. They only see the negatives and the problems. They can’t find enjoyment. They find the cloud in every silver lining.
When Jesus ascends to the heavens, it is a tangible reminder that he came to give us life. We are destined for the light. We are called into glory. We are made to rise and ascend upwards to the heavens. Even when we are down in the dumps, we need to look upwards to see our ultimate goal. The final line of the song from Zorba says, “Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die…This is how the time goes by!”
There is the story of the dash that is on our headstone. The dash between our date of birth and our date of death represents the life we live—that is what is most important. What did we do with our dash? Did we really live and see the moments of ascension and the glimpses of God’s glory in our lives? Or did we choose to focus on our pain, suffering, and problems?
May the feast of the Ascension of the Lord challenge us to look upward to the heavens and live.
