Prayer activity:
Create your prayer space by cutting out a cloud shape and placing it somewhere flat that it can remain and be added to until Pentecost.
Reflection:
I am convinced that society’s greatest plague is isolation and loneliness. Even in the middle of a crowd we feel alone, and our social media obsessions are attempts to bring us company.
Matthew begins his gospel with the good news that God hasn’t left us on our own, but has come as ‘Emmanuel’ – God with us. What is astonishing then, is that Ascension Day – the day Jesus physically leaves this world and is taken into heaven – isn’t a day of mourning.
If God has taken flesh in Christ, why do we not grieve that He is not with us in bodily form? Luke shows us in his telling of the Ascension. Notice Jesus’ actions as He is taken from them – ‘He lifted up his hands and blessed them.’ Think of these hands. They are scarred from nails. The hands that bless us are hands that bear wounds of love. And this blessing doesn’t The Reverend Canon Chris Russell The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Adviser for Evangelism and Witness, Church of England end, for as Jesus is taken from them, Luke tells us He continues to bless them.
Ascension isn’t a day of grieving because Jesus continues to bless – the blessing doesn’t stop just because He isn’t physically present. After all Jesus said it was good for the disciples that He was going.
We are continually blessed because He sends us the promised Holy Spirit – His presence once again in the world. And He blesses us that we might bless Him and pass that blessing onto others. Especially those five you have named before Him. God desires to bless them most probably through you.
We begin the journey through Thy Kingdom Come by receiving God’s blessing – so we might bless Him and in turn bless others
Pause and pray:
Take time to pray for your five people – whether they be family, friends or neighbours – that they may encounter God’s love and experience His blessings.
‘Living the Kingdom’ Action:
How can your hands bring God’s blessing to another person today?
Find the full version of the TKC Prayer Journal 2023 here.
