When life throws us a curve ball and it seems out of control, we naturally cling to all that is familiar: we gather family and close friends around us; we like to be at home; we listen to familiar music or do whatever else we find soothing; and of course we eat comfort foods. Somehow all this seems to reassure us that life will be normal again.

And that’s what we find the apostles doing in our scripture readings during this Easter season. Immediately after the crucifixion, as you recall, they return to the upper room, huddled together in the place they last spent time with Jesus trying to find safety and comfort; at the end of John’s gospel he tells us that they apostles decide to go fishing because nothing was more familiar than their profession before Jesus came along. And arrives and cooks them breakfast!

And in today’s gospel we find them returning once again to the upper room after Jesus has been taken up to heaven at the Ascension of last Thursday. Again they find themselves at sea and not quite sure where to turn. So they do what all of us do at those moments: they devoted themselves to prayer and ask God for guidance. The first readings during this Easter Season have all been from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and over and over again we have seen testimony in that first century of the church how God answered their prayers and gave direction, even when it seemed they were regressing and clinging to old ways.

The reality is that God will seek us out and find us wherever we are, physically or emotionally; that God has a huge investment of love in each of us and wants us to know that; while Jesus has returned to the Father, HE sends His Spirit among us at Pentecost to remain with us all days until the end of time.

And if you think about it, that is the most familiar, comforting, and soothing place for anyone of us to be.