Someone once said, “Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.” How do you take life? Its ups and downs? Its hot and humid days? Its lonely and depressing times? How did our mothers and fathers show us how to take life? How did Jesus show us how to take life?
So often I find that I’m riding an escalator at a shopping mall, an airport or a theater. Once in a while the escalator breaks down and the “OUT OF ORDER” sign goes up. Awhile back I encountered an escalator that was not running. It had an interesting sign: “THIS ESCALATOR IS TEMPORARILY A STAIRWAY”.
Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it. When Jesus ascended up to heaven, he didn’t take the escalator. He took the stairway to heaven.
Today’s Feast of the Ascension (Mark 16:15-20) allowed Jesus to leave the earth and become the glorified Lord of heaven. Our departed loved ones do much the same. They leave their body behind and reach the fullness of life in heaven with Jesus.
The Ascension reminds us that there are two kinds of death – Terminal and Seminal. Terminal death brings an end to the joys and the sorrows of this world. Seminal death means a loss of life so there can be a new life and a new spirit.
Jesus talks about Seminal death when he says, “Unless a seed falls to the earth and dies, it remains a seed. But if it dies it produces much fruit” (John 12:24). For us the Ascension means a Seminal death that leads us to a new life and eventually to heaven with Jesus and our loved ones.
How has a Seminal death brought YOU into a new life in this world?
LIFE BEGINS ONCE JESUS BECOMES THE REASON YOU LIVE IT!
