Wisdom & Vision (in hindsight)

We have all heard that everyone has 20/20 vision in hindsight. Its the more sophisticated version of "shoulda, woulda, coulda."

Had we known... Had we seen... Had we heard.

This past Thursday the church celebrated the feast of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Now, given that the Gospels were written between 50-110 AD, so between twenty and eighty years after the fact, we could expect that the evangelists would have more to say about it, its specifics, kinetics etc.

And yet the author of the Gospel of Luke (and Acts for that matter) seems very uninterested in the minutiae of that event. How exactly was Jesus lifted up? Which direction? Did he disappear or vanish in the thin air, how many people saw it etc. These questions are not on his agenda. In hindsight he writes, that in order to understand the meaning of the life of Jesus (and thus, Ascension too) we need to look to the law, the prophets, and Psalms. There is preciously little we will learn if we start from a miracle, like the Ascension. Our faith will never start with knowledge or riddle-solving. It should instead start with trust, a faith seeking understanding.

So many people tell me why they cant believe in God - often quoting miracles and mighty stories of the Bible. But that's the wrong way to start. We don't begin with Ascension - faith culminates with it. Resurrection is not the beginning of Jesus' life - its its end and culmination - and so on.

Where does your faith start? Where does it stop short or refuses to budge? Let me know...