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Fifty-one years ago, a spacecraft named Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, entering the earth’s orbit after only 12 minutes in flight.
Five days later, on July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong opened the spacecraft’s doors, becoming the first person in history to step foot on the moon.
Perhaps some of you remember the moment he spoke prophetically from space, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The mission, which has left its mark on our national consciousness, was hailed as a scientific triumph. We’ve been exploring space ever since, reaching out for new solar systems and galaxies.
Our universe, it seems, is an infinite stretch of combusting stars, black holes, asteroids and lifeless planets.
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One could argue that landing on the moon has damaged our religious imagination.
For millennia people arched their necks, squinted and stared into the bright blue sky, and prayed to the gods.
Some still do.
How many of us, for example, have sung about heaven as a place, “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, where troubles melt like lemon drops, high above the chimney top”?
But science has revealed to us time and again that that isn’t true. Heaven isn’t, “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high.”
All that exists out there are countless galaxies devoid of life. So if heaven can’t be reached with a turbo-charged rocket, then where is it?
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After all, on this Feast of the Ascension we celebrate our belief that Jesus was, “taken up into heaven.”
So where in the world – or where in the universe – did he go?
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It’s a troubling question, especially for those of us with empirically driven minds.
But thinking about heaven in scientific terms can lead us astray, because Jesus didn’t rise from the earth like a rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center; his resurrection isn’t something you can prove via autopsy or telescope.
Rather, as the Acts of the Apostles accounts, Jesus, “was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
That’s right.
Jesus returned to heaven enveloped in a cloud.
***
In the Bible, a cloud symbolizes much more than a puff of cotton-like matter floating effortlessly in the sky.
A cloud represents the presence of God.
In the Book of Exodus, for example, Israel was led out of slavery in Egypt by the Lord, who appeared to them in a, “pillar of a cloud.”
When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments, God descended upon him in a cloud.
And in Jesus’ own ministry, think of the moment that he led his disciples up a mountain and was transfigured before them. His body glowed like a light bulb and his clothes became dazzling white.
Then his Father appeared to them in a bright cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).
Nobody saw the Father speaking from heaven; they only heard him hidden in a cloud.
And today Jesus ascends into heaven, once again, mysteriously enveloped in a cloud.
***
So what’s the point?
Heaven isn’t some place over the rainbow; we can’t reach it with rockets or see it with telescopes. It’s not meant for our eyes to behold – or our bodies to touch.
Not yet.
Entrance into heaven only comes after living a life of faith in the Son of God, who has, “loved us and given himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2).
What we must focus on in the here-and-now is how we can follow Jesus just a little better – day-by-day, step-by-step.
But before you know it, we’ll be knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door, a place that isn’t somewhere over the rainbow.
No. It’s a place far beyond our wildest dreams.
Stay tuned.
