Enthroned

 

(Above picture is our son, Will, at the Monument Rocks south of  Oakley, KS. Yes, really Kansas!)

"And after He had said these things, He was lifted upwhile they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight."  --  Acts 1:9

It hit me like a class IV rapid on the Snake River outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, "It is an enthronement scene."  My seminary professor said, looking up from the Novum Testamentum Graece.  The class welcomed the respite from the precision of the Greek and was reminded of its power to pierce the heart. "Compare it to the enthronement scene in Daniel 7:13-14.  Jesus isn't leaving the disciples...Jesus is taking His throne as the long-awaited Messiah! The book of Acts is about the Kingdom entering into the world!"

At that moment, a wave of enlightenment washed over me and my worldview shifted from vaguely pre-millenial to vividly post-millenial.  Since that time, my life has been a thrilling pursuit to find signs of the Kingdom springing forth in the midst of these troubled times, "Jesus is on the throne!"

I know how easy it is to miss and that sometimes it seems far away...like the notion of a great inland sea inundating the vast Kansas prairie.  But the evidence is there when we know to look.  

There are marine fossils out on the Kansas prairie, where you would least expect them, hundreds of miles from any existing sea.  There are sharks' teeth.  The gigantic Tylosaurus.  Fossils of fish and swimming birds.  Likewise, there are also moments of joy and scenes of wonder and seasons of peace to be found in the midst of the pain and uncertainty of this age, where you would least expect to find them, great reminders of who is on the throne.

I pray that you might find hope and strength this day as you look up at the clouds in your own life. Like the clouds floating up above Will's head on the Great Plains of Kansas, high and lifted up, may they be a reminder of this enthronment scene in Acts: the Nazarene carpenter who hung out with fishermen and forgave sinners and died on a cross is also the Good Shepherd who has been raised and has ascended to His throne!

Church Stopping. Less Doing. More Being.