Acts 1:11

Trying To See Into Heaven

Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Acts 1:11 (AV).

Have you ever watched a steamer that held a very dear friend leave the pier and steam out into the ocean? If you have, you will remember how you stood and gazed after it. You wanted to remain on the pier as long as the steamer was within sight.

Do you wonder that when Jesus was suddenly taken from the disciples they stood and gazed up into heaven? His loss was to them like the snapping of a string. They had been trying to live lives like His, they had been strung up, so to speak, when all at once everything seemed to have gone wrong. He was absent; they were left alone. It was true to their likeness to us that they should pause and wonder. You have noticed that when a very little child misses its mother, it looks round about and for a moment wonders where she has gone. Then there follows the cry that can be stilled only by the mother coming back.

“How can we go back to the world without Him?” the disciples asked themselves. To gaze upwards, to gaze at each other was no solution. But, “while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

The angels' promise recalled to the disciples many things Christ had said to them. They had been forgetting His teaching in thinking of Himself. They went home happy. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy. I have heard of people to whom the same feeling came when they had lost someone who was a great help. A lady heard of the death of a dear brother, who was a missionary in China. She did not cry; she said very simply to the messenger who brought the news, “My brother is nearer me now; he is living with God.” She felt that God was their father and that heaven was their home.

After this, the disciples, as they travelled about and preached in Judaea, had great things to think about. If sometimes they longed for their Master, or wanted to be with Him, the remembrance of His message passed through their minds. Thus they went on from day to day. And thus Christ's followers are going on still.

Boys and girls, I know how happy this life feels for you. We older people sometimes envy your enjoyment of it. But we want you to know something of the unseen world round about you. There is heaven where Jesus has gone. It is not far away. We want you to think of it sometimes. We want you to remember that heaven is your lasting home and that Jesus has gone there to prepare the home for you and make it homelike. Then, when you have, like the disciples, taken a peep into heaven we want you to copy them in going back to serve Christ on earth.

The way you can do this best is to do your duty here every day. Whatever it be it is worth doing as well as you possibly can do it, for the better you do it the better you are serving Christ.

Christ is coming again. We do not know when or where; but this eleventh verse of the first chapter of Acts tells us that He will surely come. Shall we be glad to see Him? Shall we run to meet Him and welcome Him? Why, of course we shall! Not we only, but all who love Him.

An Englishman who was travelling in the Soudan awoke one day from his mid-day siesta to find a noble- looking old Arab standing patiently beside him. The Arab greeted him courteously and then inquired anxiously, “Has the prophet Jesus come back to earth yet?” “No,” said the Englishman, “not yet.” “Do you know when He is coming?” persisted the Arab. “No,” again replied the traveler, “No one knows that.” “Ah,” said the Arab, sadly, “I hoped you might know. Because when He comes I should not like to miss Him. I should like to see Him and I should like to give Him greeting.”