Ending Up at the Place You’re Supposed to Be

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                              Acts 1:2

Ending Up at the Place You’re Supposed to Be

by Robert T. Cooper

Musicians joke that Beethoven would write several possible endings to a composition, not be able to decide which was best, and so would use them all! I was always amazed that Dickens could write two totally different endings for Great Expectations. But then, several authors have done that. Several movies have been released in versions with different endings.

When Luke came to the end of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, following Jesus’ resurrection He made appearances for forty days “until the day he was taken up to heaven” (Acts 1:2). No alternative ending. Jesus went to a particular place. He sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and He stayed there.

Jesus makes a couple of later appearances in the book of Acts. He appears in Acts 7 standing at the right hand of God. He also appears in Acts 9 in a light from heaven.

Jesus is at God the Father’s right hand in order to help us with our prayers. We often don’t know how to pray as we ought. So Jesus takes our prayers and straightens them out for us so that God the Father receives them as they should have been prayed.

Jesus is also an advocate for us with God the Father. Face it, we often need someone to speak to the Father on our behalf. Sometimes we don’t even realize we need someone to do so. But Jesus knows, and He is right there on the job. He delights in caring for us so.

Finally, Jesus is at the place from which He will return when He comes back, as Acts 1:11 expresses it.

So for the final section of His earthly life, Jesus did what the Father assigned Him to do, and ended up at the place He was supposed to be.

What about you and me? We are in a section of our earthly lives. For all we know, it might be the final section. Are we doing what the Father assigned us to do? Are we making a point of ending up at the place we are supposed to be? Unlike Beethoven or Dickens or the movies, we don’t get a second chance.