Acts 1:9    After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.  10  While he was going away and as they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them.  11  They said, “Galileans, why are you standing here, looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven.

If any of us were in the disciples shoes, and had just watched Jesus taken up by a cloud from where we had just been visiting with him, my guess is that we too would be found staring up toward heaven with our jaws on the ground.  The disciples had just witnessed yet another miraculous thing, and it has left them paralyzed, staring up at the heavens that have just swallowed Jesus up.

God sends two messengers to wake them up and get them moving again.  Like Jesus did so many times before this scene, the messengers ask a question to get the disciples on their way, “Why are you standing here, looking toward heaven?” Jesus is going to come when Jesus is going to come, they seem to say, but in the mean time, you need to get a moving. Jesus gave you work to do and that work is here on earth, not up in heaven.

We’ve got work to do. God is calling us to a new thing. This is not the time for standing around. Nor is it the time for passive waiting. Jesus is going to come when Jesus is going to come and in the mean time Jesus has work for us to do. You will be my witnesses, he commands us. You will be my witnesses, here on earth, right where you are.

Let us be united in prayer.
Pray that we would not stand still, but would move to where God calls us.
Pray that we would not just look to heaven or to one another, but would focus our attention on the world arounds us – the people God has placed in our lives.
Pray that God would teach us how to witness – how to share our faith in an authentic way to the ones to whom God leads us.
Pray for the courage for us to step into this new day God has for us together.