In a painting by Australian Aboriginal artist Shirley Purdie, the ascension of Jesus is shown not as a flight into the sky but as a triumphant ascent into the red earth. He “ascends down,” so to speak, into the land—not fleeing our world but entering into its depths in order to exercise his loving authority over (and within) the whole creation. That is a profound depiction of the New Testament understanding of the ascension. Because Jesus has ascended, he is even nearer to us and to all things. “In him all things hold together,…and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things” (Col 1:17—20).

—Ben Myers The Apostles’ Creed, p89