Many adults seem to enjoy telling fantasies to their children and grandchildren they themselves were told at an early age. From fairies that will pay for lost teeth to a jolly old soul that knows if you have been good or not, children around the world are often delighted with the seemingly innocent fiction they hear.

Then reality hits. No elf, no bunny, no fairy exists and, though it appears many children take this in stride, has not a seed of doubt been placed in their mind as to what they are told by adults?

I was raised Roman Catholic and educated in a parochial school. I can distinctly remember being taught that God, and only God, knew all things. Well, logically I concluded the elf was not real, and while that was a good choice there were other choices to be made in regard to "which adults do I believe?"

Before long I began to question all adults, including the nuns and the priests in charge of my education.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that after Christ died and rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven. After so many years of hearing that, along with the innocent tales I heard from family and friends, doubt entered my mind regarding the ascension of the Christ.

Was this not a cleverly devised fable to encourage people to commit to a church system? Ah, how convenient -- all this talk about a man who did many miracles, is supposed to be God in flesh, and you better be good and do good being subservient to the Church or be damned!

That doubt stayed with me for over a decade and fueled my hatred for "Christianity."

But then, there is man's word and there is God's Word. For various reasons I began to read the Holy Bible in 1969. On January 25, 1970 I personally met the Author Who nudged me in the weeks to come to just believe what it says -- every word of it.

The ascension then became part of the foundation of faith. Through personal study I learned that though God is God, He, in His loving holiness, chooses to work with His creatures in the parameters He has set forth in His wisdom. Shortcuts produce puppets devoid of true faith and love in their Creator. The ascension was required to remedy things in heaven and earth.

To the person truly committed to Christ, His ascension also means, in part, that despite the inner and outward turmoil we face in this life we can have a peace that passes all understanding as we fully trust His completed work. As we become one with Him in His life, death, and resurrection, we also become one with Him in His ascension where He rules in all authority.

As a result, we can find tremendous blessing if we follow the command of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:1 -- "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

What seek ye and where do you trust -- man's word or God's infallible Word? What think ye of the ascension -- is it fable, or a fact of the Word of God that fuels your faith?