Act 1:3 During the forty days after His crucifixion, He appeared to the apostles from time to time and proved to them in many ways that He was actually alive. On these occasions He talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
Mk 16:19-20 When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked with them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.
I was thinking of something really interesting.
On October 27, 1985, my mother died. She was 57 years old. That alone is not too interesting.
The interesting part is that when she had been hospitalized in October, 1984, she was so near death that the doctors advised my father to leave her bedside and make her funeral arrangements. When she improved and went into remission, her oncologist said he was not responsible - that a power greater than his had been invoked. She was released right before Thanksgiving and due to her weakness, I was required to do the family holiday for the first time. With her guidance, Thanksgiving and then Christmas went off without a hitch. I spent time with her every week for the next year, talking, discussing things and just learning what she did that I would be expected to do. When she finally succumbed to cancer, I was ready to assume some of her duties in our family.
40 days after Easter, we celebrate the Ascension of Christ into heaven.
When He returned from death to His disciples, He talked to them for a mere forty days and set them straight as to their mission.
The point isn't the time span - but the way it was used. Jesus didn't come back to party with the disciples, or to parade before the government officials with a big "I told you so" banner. Instead, He met with his friends and talked to them - telling them that their job was just beginning and how.
God blessed my family with a whole year with my mother to make sure we would learn what would be expected of us and then to act on it. That time seems so important now. I look back and wonder what part of her message I didn't get because I didn't see it as the last year to listen.
God blessed the apostles with only 40 days with Jesus to make sure they knew what was expected of them and to be ready to act. Did they think it would be forever? I wonder at what point they realized they were HIS future on earth? I wonder if they looked back and wished they had asked more questions or listened a little closer?
How much time do we have with each other? Do we have years to learn and listen? or will we lose someone in a moment. I don't know, but then, none of us does. Before we find out one of us is at the end of his or her 40 days, have we revealed what we think of them? Will we have absorbed what we could learn from them? Will we see that God has given us a gift when He gave us each other and even if only for a brief period, our relationships are special and honorable?
I feel I am good for having met you, better for having known you, and blest for having remembered you.
40 days can be enough...if you use it well.
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