Christmas, the Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Easter Day, Pentecost, All Saints, each of these is well understood and observed in the church. Ascension Day?  As Rodney Dangerfield would say, "It can't get no respect."  Yet without this day, the body of Christ would never be what it is.

Perhaps it is our general denial of endings, of leavings, that makes this day unpopular.  How will we make it without this person, this event, this part of my/our life?  Transition, moving into a place without the usual bearings is always unsettling and stressful.

I have marveled this Spring at the brilliance of my garden.  It is not that I am a great gardener.  I am realizing what these plants can do with regular rain.  They have not looked this happy for about three years.  New growth and the spreading of limbs like a cat in full stretch.

What occurs to me is this: these plants have great roots.  These are the same plants who knew how to live in drought as well as seasons of plenty.  It is their roots that make it possible to live in each. The 'plenty' I am seeing now was always in them waiting for the right season to burst forth.

I think there is a parallel with Ascension and these plants.  When Jesus leaves there will no doubt be periods of transition, adjusting, of wondering if anything will survive, let alone thrive.  His leaving does not bring absence, quite the contrary.  When he leaves, the followers of Jesus draw on their roots. They find what has always been in them waiting to burst forth.  If he stays, it more than likely remains inside.  He ascends and the body of Jesus is now many instead of one.  Those who have attended to their roots have what is needed to grow, to burst forth into this new reality.

So today I will go to my garden and give thanks.  I will listen as it speaks in many colors about the importance of roots, the importance of nourishment, and the need all have to show what is in them.

Blessed Day of Ascension,

Todd