Today, at least 2/3rds of the kids on my bus route were missing. All of them Amish. Made for a quick tour of the countryside south of Arthur. The reason? Ascension Day.
Many Amish celebrate this anniversary of Jesus' ascension to heaven. The event is recorded in Acts 1:4-11 (also lesser accounts in Luke 24:51 and Mark 16:19). The thought of Jesus "rising" into heaven may seen outdated to those of us who have grasped the fact that the kingdom is breaking through into our world all around us (in every area where God is found to be at work - feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, providing for the poor, etc.), but Jesus could have been giving us a visual parable of Heaven being a "higher" place than the broken world we presently inhabit. After all, the scripture did instruct us to lift our eyes toward heaven when we pray and reminded us that heaven is a place "away" from here. But I digress.
A couple of Amish families still rode the bus and went to school today. When asked why they came to school, the answer was, "we didn't have anything special planned today anyway." Not all Amish churches are meeting today and for those who aren't observing, their kids went off to school. I'm glad they did because it gave me an opportunity to ask some questions and learn more about my neighbors.
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