It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up to heaven. Luke 24:51.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1.

And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, we come to number 33: Suffering outside the Camp. Leviticus 16:27: But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. And, Matthew 27:33; Hebrews 13:11-12: And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull…For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

There were two excerpts from my devotionals this morning that deeply resonated. The first from You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “The more we come to depend on the images offered to us by those who try to distract us, entertain us, use us for their purposes, and make us conform to the demands of a consumer society, the easier it is for us to lose our identity. These imposed images actually make us into the world that they represent, a world of hatred, violence, lust, greed, manipulations, and oppression. But when we believe that we are created in the image of God Himself and come to realize that Christ came to let us reimagine this, then meditation and prayer can lead us to our true identity.” And then these excerpts from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers: “We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life was altogether substitutionary. Up to the time of the transfiguration, He had exhibited the normal, perfect life of a man. But from the transfiguration forward – Gethsemane, the Cross, the Resurrection – everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race can enter into the life of God; by His resurrection He has the right to give eternal life to anyone, and by His ascension our Lord entered heaven, keeping the door open for humanity. The transfiguration was completed on the Mount of Ascension. If Jesus had gone to heaven directly from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone. He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure. But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the mountain to identify Himself with fallen humanity. The ascension is the complete fulfillment of the transfiguration. Our Lord returned to His original glory, but not simply as the Son of God – He returned to His Father as the Son of Man as well…As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ deliberately limited His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. But now they are His in absolute, full power. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ now has all the power at the throne of God. From His ascension forward He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.”

How can we begin to comprehend the complete Love of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit? It takes time with Him and glimpses gleaned through the sharing of others their amazing journey to God. The two devotionals show the contrast of our own world and us living in the landscape of our own thoughts and the pull of our world away from knowing God – and – the amazing work that Creator God is doing that is eternal and needed for all of us. Imagine what it was like for Peter, John and James to witness Jesus’ transfiguration on that mountain! And then to return to reality off the mountain with the other disciples who were unable to help a boy beset by a demon; what a wake up to our reality! And then to see Him return to His glory as He ascended to the Father and the two angels reminding them life here goes on. It’s still ongoing as we await His return but how much better that living is as we look to Him for understanding of how to live as Jesus lived – loving the Father and loving us. We truly need to understand how to do both – loving God and loving one another – for loving does not come easily to us. But it’s so worth it as we try with God’s help!