This month’s picture comes from a blog (click the picture) in which Pam Webster reflects on Acts 1:6–14, a passage that tells of the day, just forty days after that very first Easter, when Christ was taken up to heaven, and the disciples were left standing and staring, and probably feeling very alone.
But that blue sky wasn’t the end of the story. The disciples had been told by their Master that they would be given power to tackle the task he had given them to do, the work of being his witnesses, his presence, here on earth. The time for action was coming.
Ten days later, God was there in a new way. His presence with them no longer depended on a physical presence: through the Holy Spirit he would be with them for all time, equipping them and working in and through them.
This May we have opportunities to celebrate – Ascension Day (5 May) and the Day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church (15 May) – and then to ponder on the mystery of our three-fold God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, on Trinity Sunday (22 May). But, as the first disciples, we too need to have our focus on what we are called to do, not content to be just passive observers: “Men and women of Fife, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”