While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. – Luke 24:51
The day on which I am writing this is Aug. 27, 2026. That’s probably not terribly significant to you, but it is for me for at least two reasons.
First, this morning I finished an in-depth, personal study of the Gospel of Luke that took more than two years to complete (I’m a slow learner). When I launched into this study long ago, I had no way of knowing what precise date I would finish it, and I can’t say it really mattered to me.
Second, Aug. 27 is my mom’s birthday. In fact, she would have been 90 years old today, had we not lost her two years ago. I come from a tight-knit family, and my mom and I were especially close. Her death probably has been the most difficult loss I have experienced so far in life – and I’ve had a few.
So, what is the significance of these two occurrences on this day?
Kind of everything.
Take a look at the concluding verses of Luke, which I studied today: And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshipping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God. – Luke 24:50-53
The Story of His Grace
In one sense, God, in His manifold and abundant grace, simply took the opportunity to comfort me on what is typically a tough day. Had the timing been different, had I gone a little slower or faster, I would have been in a completely different part of Scripture. Perhaps the crucifixion. Or perhaps the beginning of Numbers (my next study).
But today, He parked me right on the ascension of Christ, and in that reminded me that not only does He love my mother so much He died for her, but also that by His power He has overcome her death. Just as Jesus was carried up into heaven – indeed because Jesus was carried up into heaven – so can we be. And that realm is far sweeter and more beautiful than being in His creation here on earth (which I adore) because there we are finally with Him.
Beginning at Birth
Okay, that’s the pretty obvious reason this “Godcidence” was important to me. But there is more. He reminded me of His ascension not on the date of her death, which is what I would have expected, but on the date of her birth. He reminded me that her resurrection story, the story of her reintegration with Him, began not when she died, but when she came to life.
When He formed her inward parts and wove her together in my grandmother’s womb (Ps. 139:13), when He finished integrating her, the story of her reintegration with Him began. There was a disintegration that happened, indeed happens to all whom God forms as a result of sin and the Fall. But that intervening event is of no consequence for the believer because of Jesus’ work on the cross.
For those who understand and accept this, death can never steal the beauty of God’s love and the miracle of His work in bringing us into the world in the first place. We, who have been born and born again of the Spirit, have not just a victory over death, but an eternity of life with God, which is vastly more important than anything we have or had in this life. (By the way, the verse of the day today on the Bible App was Col. 3:1; I will let you look that up and consider its significance to this discussion.)
One With the Story
But lastly, I’ll conclude with this. This series of blog posts is about story. More specifically, it is about us in God’s story, and God’s story in us. We are not just witnesses to God’s story; we are resident in it. And it dwells in us.
What God reminded me through aligning His word with my mom’s birthday was how true that is. My mother’s life, my life, your life, all our lives are a reflection of God’s story. The bigger story reveals that He lovingly created us from nothing but dust into objects of His own deep desire and love; exquisite in His eyes. He felt the gripping pain of losing us to our pride as we turned away. But He never let go. He dwelled among us, He died for us, and He rose again to forge a way for us to be back to Him.
That bigger story of reintegration of everything includes us, but it also plays out in each of our lives if we allow it. As we dwell in Him in this life, we know we too will die like Him. But as we die like Him, we also know we will rise like Him. The gospel story of reintegration He wrote didn’t conclude with His ascension. It concludes with ours. When those stories meet, there you find the ultimate story.
Do you experience God’s story playing out in your life? Do you see it in everyday experiences like the one I had today? I hope you do, because you are in it and it is in you. And if you do, I hope you will share that story, because it’s the best story you can tell.
