9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
The gymnastic interpretations that happen around simple verses like this amaze me! We are in a simple narrative section. The events are presented in a straight forward manner. There is no sense of hyperbole or inflation of the events. As Jesus was talking with His disciples, he rises into the air, and then disappears into the clouds. I know this is out of the ordinary. People don’t normally rise above the ground without some external assistance. Even people in that day knew that. But just because something doesn’t fit into our small scientific box doesn’t mean it can’t happen, or for that matter didn’t happen. The writer is just reporting what he has been told by those who were present at the scene. They don’t say he made figure eight movements as he rose. They don’t say he was carried to heaven by hummingbirds with pink capes. Just that he rose and disappeared into the clouds. There is no attempt to explain, just report. And yet those who want to deny the reality of the Biblical events go to great lengths to try to explain away events like these. Because of their own narrow worldview they must be able with their finite minds explain the infinite. I choose to recognize that there are things that no human being is capable of understanding. Our brains cannot grasp the infinite. So I don’t try to fully understand everything. Sometimes I just have to accept that some things don’t fit in my understanding of the universe, that God is not bound by my understanding. If we can accept that God does things outside our realm of ‘normal’ then God can change us in ways we can’t explain. He can heal hurts and mend wounds that we have tried to fix for years. He can see us through impossible situations, because His impossible doesn’t exist. All things are possible with Him. When all around us seems to be crumbling, He is our shelter and rock, immovable. But if God is not able to do the seemingly impossible, then all we have is our strength to solve problems that are bigger than us. We are stuck in our situations and troubles. There is no hope of delivery. Since Jesus rose from the ground and disappeared into the clouds, God can do the unexpected, the impossible in my life.
The Arnold Journey 