Scripture Scribbles: May 17, 2026 - The Ascension of the Lord
the Gospel
Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
the scribble
There is so much packed into this short Gospel that I would love to highlight. So much! But I’m going to dive into that very last line.
“And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Did you catch that?
“I am with you always”
Always!
Not sometimes, not occasionally, not when you were at Mass praying, or during adoration…. always!
Do you believe this? Do you live like this?
Imagine if we could see what this actually looks like. If when we rose from our bed in the morning, there He was. Jesus, standing there, ready to start our day with us. Would we let him see us grab our phone….hear us begin to gripe about how tired we are or how miserable we are to start the day?
Or, would we smile at our friend and say “I’m so happy you are here with me!” Would we ask him expectantly, “what do you have planned for us today? Who are we going to encounter, together?”
I have a feeling that most of us would live a very different day if Jesus was sitting there in the passenger seat, standing next to us in line at the grocery store, waiting with us in the doctors office.
But He is there!
I am with you always.
There is so much written in our Bibles that I never even thought to take note of.
John 15:11
“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”
JOY
Isn’t that what we are all searching for, joy?
Is that what we desire for ourselves, our kids, our parents, our friends…Joy?
Yes!
“You are my friends if you do what I command you”
He is calling us friends. He’s also asking us to obey him.
Are you friends with Jesus? I’m going to guess many of you, if you grew up like me, never even considered friendship with Jesus. I’m guessing, if you came across someone who spoke like that, you might’ve just dismissed them as being, well… weird.
That my friends, is the lie of the evil one!
The devil must love nothing more than to hear the world, or a close friend, a family member, a loved one call someone who is growing in their faith weird! I bet it’s one of his favorite lies!
Looking around, we give so much credit to worldly things. Especially to our kids. We call them courageous if they dare to run for class officer, team captain, apply to the competitive school, the internship, the club. But if they start to go to more Masses, read the Bible, be friends with Jesus….. well that’s just weird.
What if we really took these readings to heart and encouraged our kids, our friends, our neighbors that this was actually courageous!
What does a relationship with our Lord look like? It might reshape our desires, we may start to love what He loves and hate what He hates.
“It's not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” John 15:16
Did you know He chose you?
What would our lives look like if we all walked around as if we were chosen by the Father to be his friend? What if our children believed this?
Do we believe the Word of God, or not?
As I get older and watch our kids become adults and watch my parents age there’s so much I want to hold onto that I feel slipping through my hands. I’ve come to realize I am not in control, not even a little, but I am slowly getting to know who is, and I am enjoying building this friendship with Him.
Even if the world thinks it’s weird.
I believe God is the architect of us all. He knows us and why He made us the way we are. It’s so easy to believe in a loving God when everything is going great, but we need the type of faith that will sustain us in our trials, when things are falling apart, when life seems to be unraveling. I want to encourage you to steep yourself in His Word, become firmly rooted in His Truth. So when the storms come, and they will come, we can look to our Friend and say not my will, but yours be done.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Today’s devotion was written by Beth Brennan
