The Ascension – A Poem

By Christi Ortiz

Why were the apostles chastised for looking up into the sky?
Didn’t Jesus just ascend? Who’s to blame them?
Why the critique for looking on where they had last seen him?

Yet the angels’ message to the apostles,
was to prepare them for Pentecost,
and to challenge them to look for Jesus in new and unseen ways.
To look not up, but within and without.

Their grasping for one last glance at the familiar
reminds me of the role of transitional objects for children.
They adopt some blanket or ‘stuffy’
and find comfort in new and uncertain circumstances
clutching it tightly
smelling its familiarity,
soothing their anxiety with their tangible friend.

But don’t think we grow out of this childlike habit,
Oh no, we have all sorts of comfortable familiars we cling to,
the attachment often underestimated until stripped from us.

“Why are you clinging to what you know of Jesus?” the angels challenge.
How often do I hold onto what I know, what is comfortable,
rather than accept the radical gospel challenge?

The angels encouraged hope and faith in the unseen,
as the cloud of unknowing overshadowed them.
The Jesus they had all known and loved and left to follow was now gone,
his absence leaving a gapping silence,
or perhaps fear, loneliness or doubt.
This was the state of affairs inside the locked doors of the Upper Room.

And yet they wait with expectant faith.
They do not carve idols of Jesus in desperation,
or abandon the whole thing and pack up for home.
They sit in the anguish of letting go,
allowing themselves to be opened up for something more,
their minds and hearts could not possibly imagine what awaits them
if they have the trust to let go and open to the unknown.

God never seems to be content with our small minds and hearts,
but rather continually calls us beyond,
out into the deep,
beyond ourselves,
beyond our borders,
beyond our concepts,
never staying in our God box.