Lessons from Acts: Stop Looking at the Sky (devotion)

Several years ago we were part of an amazing homeschool playgroup. We would meet weekly at a local park. While the kids ran around like crazy, the moms had a chance to socialize sharing schooling frustrations, joys, and ideas. We also went on field trips together, attended birthday parties, and enjoyed other learning experiences. It was great because Sam was guaranteed a chance to see friends and play at least once a week. And I was guaranteed the same thing. Our family has moved twice since then and, each time we enter a new community, I’m trying to find another group just like it.


In the beginning of Acts, Jesus has been resurrected and He is giving His followers final instructions. Then He ascends into heaven. He had told them on more than one occasion that He needed to go so that the Holy Spirit could come. He reminds them of this twice before He ascends (Acts 1:5, 8). Yet in verse 10, it says Jesus’ followers were gazing into the sky where he’d gone.

It continues, “…two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!’” My paraphrase goes something like this, “Why are you looking at the sky? Get on with what He told you to do.”

I’d have been right there with them staring at the clouds. If those two white-robed men hadn’t come, how long would those people have stayed in that spot? Would they have built a shire or altar and had followers come from all over to the place from which Jesus ascended? I can imagine them wanting to hold onto Jesus and all He had done, afraid of a life without His physical presence. I think we are all guilty of this—holding onto the past and thus missing the future.

Sometimes we do this out of pain, shame, or guilt. How many times have you missed out on a good relationship because you were burdened with mistrust from a past one? Craig Groeschel talks about this in his book The Christian Atheist. In the chapter When You Believe in God but are Ashamed of Your Past, he says, “Once we accept the unchangeable past, we must embrace that God can change our future.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” We can’t be made new if we cling to our old sin and hurt.

Sometimes it isn’t pain or shame that makes us miss out on God’s future, its glory. Like the men of Galilee above, we hold onto the good things in our past. Those men looked into the sky remembering they had walked with Christ, seen miracles. Perhaps they wondered “How could it possibly get any better?” Even though Christ had told them it would be better, they were rooted in the past until those two mysterious men booted them into the future. I think this attitude of operating in past glory is a problem in the church. Congregations are dwindling because they insist on doing things as they always have. Conferences and seminars don’t have the same impact because they’ve been utilizing the same format over and over. To modify Groeschel’s quote, “Once we let go of our glorious pasts, we can embrace God’s future for us.”

Of course, God’s future is going to be different. I still haven’t found a group like my old one. I have to work harder to make sure Sam has time with his friends. However, I have found a homeschool athletic association. My son has trained and competed with homeschoolers from all over our area in cross country and track. He wouldn’t have had that opportunity in our old group. Once I let go of the past, I was able to find a future for my son I hadn’t imagined.