Words of Grace

By Rev. Mahlon Nevel

The book of Acts begins with the ascension of Christ. That was the day in which he was taken up. (1:2)
After Jesus had spoken his final words to his disciples, “he was taken up.” (V. 9) As the disciples looked up toward heaven, a cloud hid him from their sight.

Two men dressed in white clothing were standing near them. They were angels who asked them why they continued to gaze up to the sky.

This same Jesus, the disciples were told, who was taken up from them into heaven, would come back again, in like manner just as they had seen him go. He went up in a cloud, and he will return in a cloud.

“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”(Luke 21:27). As Jesus went in a cloud, he will also return in a cloud.

The words about a cloud that hid Jesus from the sight of the disciples brought great comfort to a man who was going through much suffering in his Christian life. He once remarked to a friend:

“When I am very low and in darkness, I go to the window and if I see a heavy cloud, I think of those precious words, and I look up. That cloud gives to me comfort when I think that cloud may be the cloud that hides him from my sight.”