Forever Is a Long Time

Yesterday, I herded my family into our minivan to leave for the sunrise service at our church. Even though it was still early and my coffee hadn't quite kicked in, I was excited. Jesus is risen! It's a message that never grows stale. While I remember it all year through, there's something about that same pronouncement on Resurrection Sunday -- the very day we annually celebrate the empty, echoing tomb.

"Hey guys," I said over my shoulder to my kids as I danced a little bop in the driver's seat, "Jesus is alive! The tomb's empty!"

My practical son sighed. "I know, Mom. It's not like it just happened; He's been alive for a long time. Why are you so excited about it now?"

I fell back to earth with a bump. Why am I more excited on Resurrection Sunday than the rest of the year? I mean, I'm pretty excited all year long, but for some reason, yesterday was a mountaintop experience.

And today... well, today is a little quiet, a little still. And as I woke up this morning and blinked into the darkness, trying to shed sleep from my eyes... I wondered how the disciples felt the day after Jesus' ascension into heaven. 

I had made some close friends at Bethel Camp in Kentucky, and each time I visited the place, I'd get to see these friends. The only problem was, they lived in Indiana and Ohio, and I lived in North Carolina. As camp week drew closer each year, I worked myself up into a fever pitch of excitement. I couldn't wait to spend time with these dear people again. We wrote letters (yes, actual envelope, licked-stamp, notebook paper letters -- what can I say; I'm getting old) throughout the year, but there was nothing that substituted for the sharing of real, physical space.

When the week or weekend of camp hit, it was pure adrenaline. We laughed, we hugged, some of us cried (me). I remember vainly trying to hold onto every minute that passed, extend it, make it last as long as I possibly could, because I just didn't want to part ways again.

Of course, time, as time does, marched on, and the day came way too quickly for my friends to go one way and me another. We stood in a circle and prayed together, and then I watched their van disappear down the long gravel driveway. 

And the heavy weight settled deep inside me. Distance. Time. Sadness.

How much heavier was this feeling for Jesus' closest friends as they watched Him disappear amid the clouds? Some people don't realize that after Jesus rose from the dead, He stayed in bodily form on this planet, third one from the sun, for forty days. 

That's over a month. It's enough time for Jesus to appear to many people as an incontrovertible testimony that He does, in fact, live again! 1 Corinthians 15:5 says: "... and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me (Paul) also, as to one abnormally born."

But those forty days draw to a close, and Jesus directs His disciples to follow Him out of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, where He gathers them on its eastern slope.

His disciples ask the same question that we still ask today: When are You going to make all things new? Their wording is a little different from ours: "Lord," they ask, "are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

They're still looking for a conquering hero to free them from Rome. Even after all that has happened, even after Jesus has said, My kingdom is not of this world. Even after He turns aside from the shouts of Hosanna, Save us! from a people ready for revolution, and dies on a cross instead, proving He has a much different and bigger plan...

Even after the veil in the Temple rips in two, even after the graves split open and the dead are raised to life, even after Jesus appears to many and Peter is told to Feed my sheep, and on and on and on...

They still ask.

Jesus says: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority."

This is hard for me, y'all. I like the details. I like to know what's going on. I'm one of those who, if curiosity really did kill cats and I was a cat... I'd have used up my nine lives a long time ago. So "it is not for you to know..." is a hard pill for me to swallow.

At the same time, I'm so thankful that God is the One Who gets to worry about it. If it were up to me, I'd be all wrapped up in worrying about the details, making sure everything was exactly right according to prophecy, hoping I hadn't left any t's uncrossed or any i's undotted. I would make a horrible deity. I'm so thankful God sees fit to let His creation remain His creation (not mine) and that He absolutely fills His throne.

In Jesus' final words to His followers, He instructs them to wait. Almost like... He knows there will be a gap between a promise given... and a promise fulfilled. And waiting is... just... hard.

Acts 1:4 says: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." When Jesus leads them all out to the Mount of Olives for His ascension, He gives the disciples their great commission: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

The promise... is for the Spirit of the Man they have followed for the last three years to come and be with them forever (John 14:16). 

Forever means... never parting. Never having to say goodbye. Never watching them drive away, waving goodbye until they turn out of the camp exit... never staring into the clouds as the weight of emptiness settles over them.

Acts 1:10-11 describes this: "[The disciples] were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, Who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.'"

So... the disciples head back to Jerusalem, where they wait and pray for ten days... a week and a half of emptiness...

Until the Day of Pentecost. 

"When the Day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them" (Acts 2:1-4).

Can you imagine the greatness of that moment? They don't have Jesus in-person to hug and touch and speak to, but they have His Spirit living inside them. And He will never, ever leave them. "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever..." (John 14:16). Forever is a long time. Forever is never-ending.

Yesterday, as I was praying, I saw myself in a vision wrestling with an enormous clay pitcher. It was huge and round and filled to the brim with water, and I was so, so thirsty, hot, and tired. Not only did I want a drink, I wanted to be soaked in the water. 

But I struggled to tip the jar, there was so much water in it. I finally managed to shove my weight against it enough that it tipped over. The water sloshed out, dousing my hands, but most of it ran onto the ground. I was upset at first, because: what a waste!

And the Spirit said: "I Am so fulfilling, you don't need to keep Me to yourself. Let me go to others, too."

Psalm 63:1-5 says: "Oh God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You. My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary (those mountaintop experiences, that Bethel Camp place), and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise You."

That's Holy Spirit work right there. Soul satisfaction. Deep feeding. Deep watering. For everyone who wants Him.

That pitcher isn't just for me. There's enough of that rich fulfillment for everyone.

So when you ask your Now What's, when you feel the weight of waving Resurrection Sunday goodbye, when you're so hungry and thirsty for the presence of God...

He has promised fulfillment. He has promised to send us the Advocate to be with us forever. Long past circa 33 A.D. 

"And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). There's so much comfort in that. Much as I long to see my Savior face to face, I get up each morning and listen to the steady presence of His Holy Spirit. Right here. Right here. 

So, let me be one of those witnesses to the ends of the earth: If you don't know my Savior, let me introduce Him to you. Send me a message; let me know; I want to pray with you. This is my testimony: He's changed me; He fills me up completely. There is nothing -- repeat: nothing -- greater in my life; I can never go back to before. I can only move closer to Him. He's more wonderful than anything or anyone you will ever know, and He will never leave you or forsake you. He promises it (Deuteronomy 31:6). He brings eternity with Him wherever He walks. 

You can never wave goodbye and watch Him disappear, ever. Because He is with us always, to the very end of the age.