Behold, I Am with you always...

Men of Galilee...
Why are you standing there staring at the sky?

This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will return in the same way you have seen him going into heaven.
~ Acts 1:11

Food for Thought:
How often have you made a plan at an event, saying, “If we get split up, just go back to the car and wait” or “Stay at the fountain in the mall—I’ll find you!”

Earlier in Matthew, Jesus told the women at the tomb to tell the disciples, “If something happens, head back to Galilee” (28:10). This was the game plan and was both a geographic reference and a spiritual one. “Go back to what you know, what you remember.”

They were confused and hurting, but did as Jesus said, returning to Galilee, specifically to the mountain where they had a powerful experience with him before. That would make it understandable that the disciples showed up but were a bit leery or doubting.

Put yourself in the disciples’ shoes. This is May, the season of graduations, new jobs, new cars, marriages, and so many other transitions as young people strike out on their own. Jesus reminded the disciples, “I have the power, and I’ve been teaching you for three years. Now you have the power. Go. Make Disciples. Baptize in the name of the Trinity. Teach them what I taught you.”

Surely the disciples were frightened, and Jesus must have felt both fear and pride. This was the moment that happens in every lifetime. It was time for these disciples, these students, his “children” to become the masters. And how did he reassure them? As parents and teachers and mentors have been doing for centuries. He smiled and reminded them,

“Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Or as we might say, “You’ve got this.”

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